http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/better-laws-for-pigs/

Help Improve Laws for Pigs!

Tassie Pigs Need Your Support

Pigs are highly intelligent animals whose capacity to suffer is great. Investigators discovered this dying pig with leg wounds so severe that she could not reach food.

Tragically the general conditions at this Tasmanian piggery – pregnant pigs confined in 'sow stalls' so small they cannot turn around – is allowable under the industry code of practice, despite such treatment constituting a cruelty offence if the victim were a dog or cat.

Please help pressure the Tasmanian Government to create better standards for these sensitive animals

 http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/better-laws-for-pigs/

Help Improve Laws for Pigs!

On June 30th 2009 in the Scottsdale Court in Tasmania, Gary Oliver, a commercial piggery operator and a major pork supplier of Woolworths, will be asked to enter a plea to serious breaches of the Tasmanian Animal Welfare Act, included aggravated cruelty, after police were called to the piggery on March 3rd 2009.

The individual neglect of sick and injured animals found in this factory farm was appalling. One of the counts of aggravated cruelty relates to a dying pig whose large shoulder wound was infested with hundreds of maggots. Other charges relate to pregnant pigs in individual stalls with leg wounds so severe that they were unable to move or feed and as a result had been left to starve.

The situation at this piggery fully reveals the failure of current laws to protect pigs from abuse. It also reveals the failure of inspection bodies to check on the welfare of animals in commercial premises.

The Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries, David Llewellyn, is currently considering whether Tasmania should have higher standards of care for pigs than is required by the revised National Code of Practice — which the document that exempts industry operators from cruelty prosecutions and (still) allows pregnant pigs to be individually confined and barely able to move for their 4 month pregnancy.

Please congratulate Minister Llewellyn for his willingness to take an ethical lead and ask him to ban the use of cruel sow stalls in Tasmania.