Aquaculture animal welfare code 'anti-Kiwi', Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is ruling out an animal welfare code for aquaculture, saying it is "anti-Kiwi" and an "indulgence".
The SPCA has called for a code to protect farmed fish, following a government plan to grow the industry's revenue to $3 billion annually by 2035.
Scientific officer Marie McAninch said a code would also help give the aquaculture sector access to the sorts of international markets that land-based farmers benefit from, thanks to their animal welfare codes.
"New Zealanders care about how farmed animals are treated - and so do people overseas who buy our products. They'll expect that farmed fish in aquaculture are treated well and that their welfare meets our animal welfare laws.
"A code of welfare for aquaculture would help make that happen. But right now, New Zealand's Aquaculture Strategy - and the
Aquaculture Development Strategy
that Shane Jones announced in March - are both completely silent on the welfare of the animals being farmed."
Jones said he would not be considering an animal welfare code.
"Most certainly not. I think these impositions are anti-Kiwi. We are in the midst of a set of economic challenges where we must expand and grow the footprint of aquaculture. It's all going to end up [as food for] human consumption or pet consumption."
Jones said existing fish farmers already did "a very good job" of looking after their stock. "All of these animal husbandry businesses, there's always scope for improvement. But regulatory codes ... only represent red tape and at a deeper level where does all this end? We're a small economy and a lot of these impositions are, in my view, indulgences. They're vanity projects and these debates need a clear set of contrasting views."
But McAninch said New Zealanders cared about how farmed animals were treated - and so did people overseas who bought products from New Zealand fish farms.
Fish were legally recognised as sentient beings, which meant they were capable of feeling pain, stress and positive emotional states, she said.
The SPCA was not against aquaculture, McAninch said.
"But we do believe it's crucial to make sure all farmed animals - and any wild animals affected by these systems - are properly protected. Our land-based farming sectors take pride in their animal welfare codes, and it's helped them with access to international markets. If the aquaculture sector doesn't plan for this now, they risk falling behind in a global environment where factory farming is increasingly under scrutiny."
Jones said he was "the first to admit some of my views might be a bit difficult to stomach". But animal advocates were "on a trajectory of mission creep, and I kind of feel it's anti-Kiwi," he said.
"I can understand that little kittens and dogs that bite children and other welfare considerations [are] an established part of rural life and our ethos, but suggesting that people growing salmon, new fish species and indeed shellfish ... we already have a system through the Resource Management Act that deals with the effects of such activity."
Jones described a recent outcry by animal lovers about
farming octopuses
, which are sentient beings, as "the height of this folly".
"We need to grow industry, we don't want to impose these urban based vanity beliefs of basic industrial growth prospects."
Octopus farming was banned in the United States in Washington and California due to animal welfare concerns, and consideration of a ban is also underway in three more states.
But Jones said New Zealand could not afford such "luxury indulgences".
"It's not something that I'm going to encourage, it's certainly not something I'm going to push forward, or agree with, at a time we have large competing objectives and other goals that I think society should set its mind upon."
The SPCA would welcome talks with the minister about how a welfare code could help ensure the aquaculture sector was sustainable and resilient, McAninch said.
There is currently no code of welfare for farmed fish species, although the New Zealand Salmon Farmers Association has developed a voluntary welfare standard for farmed salmon in New Zealand. The Animal Welfare Act 1999 (the AWA) and the Code of Welfare for Commercial Slaughter applies to farmed fish and for any fish that are intended to be held or transported live.
The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) has identified development of a code of welfare for farmed fish for consideration as a future priority.
The Minister in charge of Animal Welfare, Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard said NAWAC set its own work programme and schedule for code reviews, but he had asked it to prioritise production livestock codes, and the rodeo code.
"Several of these codes have been under review for some time and the industries concerned need certainty. I expect NAWAC to deliver on those codes before turning their attention to other animal species."
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