The Green Party and animal welfare activists are urging the Government to reconsider its move to repeal a ban on live exports in the wake of images showing animals living in their own filth on "purpose-built" ships.
One of those ships, the Al-Kuwait, caused a literal stink in Cape Town earlier this year. Images from the voyage show animals covered in muck and at least three died. According to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the vessel last visited New Zealand in 2022 with more than 11,000 cattle on board and "just one mortality".
The previous Labour government announced a ban on live exports by sea following a months-long investigation by TVNZ's Sunday programme into the conditions endured by cattle at sea.
It follows an animal welfare debacle aboard a ship which has been used to carry New Zealand livestock in the past. (Source: 1News)
The ban took effect in April 2023. Live exports had been expected to bring in $310 million in the year before the ban — about 0.5% of the primary sector's export earnings.
Reversing the ban on live animal exports — "while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare" — is part of National's coalition agreement with ACT.
At a Primary Production select committee, in response to a question from Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the Government wanted a "gold standard" for animal welfare on live exports, which would be developed based on public consultation, including with the sector.
"I would think of it this way: the way we expect that animals have been treated in New Zealand, on the water and on the farm or the destination country should be the same — the same level of animal health, animal welfare and animal husbandry.
"My expectation would be that it would be better than anywhere else, and there are some parts of the world that are able to export animals with purpose-built ships, with vets on board ... where we are not sure of that, then animals wouldn't leave New Zealand."
He said a 2020 incident where the cattle ship Gulf Livestock sunk off the coast of Japan after leaving Napier, costing the lives of 41 crew including two New Zealanders and almost 6000 cattle, was "horrible" and "tragic".
"Something like that could never happen again, in New Zealand."
He said until regulations were set and the law was passed no animals could leave New Zealand.
Green MP Steve Abel showed McClay images of cattle apparently covered in faeces and said : "I wonder, minister, if you've seen these images published by SAFE of cattle on a purpose-built live animal shipment living in their own filth?"
He said the images were "after only eight days of being on the ship", which had been in Cape Town, South Africa.
"This is how live animal exports function."
Abel said 100 cows had also recently died in a shipment from Darwin to Indonesia.
"An Australian ship we would have thought had high standards," he said.
"Our concern is, given the predetermined nature of your coalition agreement, are you prepared to take into account that perhaps it is not possible to do these shipments without breaching the fundamental standards that New Zealanders expect animals to have based on our values.
"This sort of shipment is, as many animal welfare experts state, essentially cruel, cannot be done in a way that is not cruel — even with purpose-built ships — because it requires intense confinement of animals on a moving vessel for multiple days and the only place they're meant to 'go' is where they live."
He said there was also a disease risk on the shipments.
"Not to mention that we cannot ensure the welfare standards of the countries those animals go to, because as you are well aware, we cannot tell other jurisdictions how to treat their animals."
McClay noted the shipments Abel had pointed out were not from New Zealand, but said the standards from the countries they had left "sound very different to what needs to be considered for New Zealand".
He understood for the last shipment of live animal exports from New Zealand, on a purpose-built ship, "those sorts of things didn't happen".
"The reason actually we're not in Parliament passing a law [on live animal exports] today is we've said we want to develop rules and regulations around what a gold standard would be, and it feels like higher than anywhere else in the world, and that we'll be out for full public consultation.
"The coalition agreement is clear and you can see what it says, but in the development of the regulations and how this would work, there is a very open mind."
ACT's Mark Cameron said in 2022 the ban on live exports was "ideological, costly and unnecessary", would hurt rural communities economically and damage New Zealand's international reputation.
"The practice should have been allowed to continue with careful management."
In late February the Al-Kuwaitm, which was carrying cattle, emitted a foul stench, raising the ire of Cape Town residents. Images from the ship, when it was docked in Iraq in early March, show cattle in filthy and crammed conditions. Three animals were found dead on the ship while it was in South Africa, according to the National Council of SPCAs inspectors, and they had to euthanise others.
They said concerns raised by members of the public regarding the noticeable stench from the ship was indicative of the awful conditions the animals endured.
MPI director of animal health and welfare Carolyn Guy said the last sailing of the Al-Kuwait from New Zealand — from Timaru — was in September 2022.
"The voyage took 16 days with 11,113 cattle and there was just one mortality. The on-board veterinarian reported that during the voyage, the feeding and washing down plans ensured that 'cattle comfort was maximised, and any heat stress minimised'."
SAFE chief executive Debra Ashton said recent international live animal export incidents were "another reminder why this Government needs to maintain the ban".
She said live exports were among the "cruellest" things humans had done to animals, and the concept of a "gold standard" for animal welfare on live exports was "window dressing" and "a really good marketing line".
"It's not a reality."
Ashton said she believed there was every chance the Government would "see sense".
A 1News poll last year revealed 51% of Kiwis wanted to see the ban continue.
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