Voiceless launches updated Consumer Action Sheet for the humane treatment of pigs as 60 Minutes airs pig welfare story.

Brian Sherman AM, Director of Voiceless, today called for abolition of sow stalls in Australia as Voiceless launched its updated Consumer Action Sheet (CAS) on the intensive factory farming of pigs. The CAS sets out how concerned Australians can take action against cruel pig farming practices and highlights the dire conditions under which factory farmed pigs live.

The Consumer Action Sheet shares similar objectives of raising awareness of pig welfare to those aired tonight on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes, as footage taken undercover in a pig farm showed the cruel conditions in which these intelligent and sensitive creatures live. In factory farms, pigs have no life to speak of. They are confined to crowded barren sheds with concrete floors and never see the sky or feel the earth beneath their feet.

One of the most horrifying aspects of this industry is sow stalls, where in Australia approximately more than a quarter of a million pregnant sows per year are imprisoned for the term of their pregnancy. They cannot take more than a step forward or back and they cannot turn around. The recent revision of the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – Pigs has only served to maintain the status-quo, allowing the use of sow stalls to continue across Australia’s pig industry for at least the next decade.

Sherman said, “Sow stalls are already banned in the UK and in many European countries. They are also scheduled to be phased out in a number of US states, including most recently Michigan. All European Union member countries will prohibit the use of sow stalls from January 2013. Australia is shamelessly lagging behind the world in its treatment of these smart and sensitive creatures.”

The CAS calls on Australians to take action against the suffering of factory farmed pigs. It is an easy-to-read guide that gives the facts about the Australian pork industry.

Ondine Sherman, Director of Voiceless, said today, “The plight of factory farmed pigs is a horror story of mutilation, unnatural confinement, pregnant sows confined to steel pens and piglets having their tails docked and their teeth clipped without pain relief. The Voiceless CAS sets out in clear unambiguous language this terrible suffering and shows ordinary Australians how they can do something about it.”

Brian Sherman AM and Ondine Sherman are available for interview.

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