Animal lawfare: Pig producers, abattoirs and PrimeSafe under attack

Animals Australia has launched legal action to stop pre-slaughter gassing of pigs, while politicians ram through a pig welfare inquiry.

Animal activists stormed a Victorian slaughterhouse to protest the gas stunning of pigs. Picture: Farm Transparency Project

Animals Australia has filed proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria challenging the legality of pre-slaughter stunning of pigs in gas chambers, which it argues is “one of the cruellest killing methods of pigs in the world today”.

The legal action, filed on Friday, follows Farm Transparency Project activists secretly taking footage of pigs being gassed in Victorian abattoirs, which showed it took anywhere from 18 to 27 seconds for animals to collapse into unconsciousness in gas chambers.

Animals Australia’s legal counsel Shatha Hamade said the case against PrimeSafe and a Benalla abattoir was “about upholding the current law, which we will argue is unable to be met by slaughterhouses that use the cruel gassing method”.

The footage also prompted Labor, the Greens and Animal Justice Party to announce an inquiry into abattoir gassing, as well as wider pig welfare issues.

But while the Victoria’s Upper House Economy and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by AJP MP Georgie Purcell announced the inquiry in May this year, it has given Victorians just six weeks over the Christmas-New Year period to lodge submissions.

Victorian Farmers Federation pig group president David Wright said producers would struggle to lodge submissions, given staff were taking time off over Christmas and they were flat out ensuring their pigs were kept safe, cool and well fed.

“It’s not fair, but we will use it (the inquiry) to showcase the good things we do,” Mr Wright said.

The inquiry goes far beyond just examining pre-slaughter stunning of pigs at abattoirs, to questioning pig breeding methods, confinement, the phase-out of sow stalls and international welfare standards.

The public is even asked to fill out a survey that asks: “Do you believe that animals should be killed to provide food for humans? – Yes, No or Not sure”.

The survey also asks leading questions such as: “Would you be prepared to pay more for pork products if the industry advanced practices with better welfare outcomes?”

One of the inquiry’s key terms of reference is to examine “international comparisons to determine industry adherence to best practice standards”.

Mr Wright said just across the Tasman, New Zealand pig producers were already struggling to deal with new pig welfare standards that increased the space required to house pigs, which came at an enormous cost.

In 2020 New Zealand’s Animal Law Association won a High Court case that ruled farrowing crates breached the nation’s Animal Welfare Act and must be phased out by 2025.

The case then led to a review of NZ’s welfare code for pigs that recommended an increase in space requirements that Mr Wright said had led to producers leaving the industry.

Victoria’s Upper House inquiry comes just as Agriculture minister Ros Spence is about to release a new Animal Care and Protection bill for public comment, representing the most radical animal welfare reforms in 37 years.

Submissions to the inquiry can be lodged at https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/inquiries/inquiry-into-pig-welfare-in-victoria/submissions

Australian Pork Limited has repeatedly backed CO2 gas stunning as “the most humane and effective method of managing pig welfare during processing”.