Last Tuesday was a day to remember, it’s the day we showed just how strongly New Zealanders feel that the sordid live export trade needs to stay banned!
I met activists who had travelled from Auckland, Queenstown, Timaru, New Plymouth and pretty much all over NZ, to attend the live export petition handover at Parliament.
Petition handovers happen quite often at Parliament, but this was the most inspiring I’d ever been to. I have never known so many people to fly to Wellington for an event like this – it shows how horrified New Zealanders are at the prospect of this new National-led Government destroying the ban on live export by sea.
The petition was supported by Animals Aotearoa, End Live Export New Zealand, Helping You Help Animals (HUHA), SAFE, SPCA, Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Aotearoa (VAWA) and World Animal Protection, together with a highly committed team of grassroots activists up and down the country, who were out in all weathers getting caring Kiwis to add their names to stop live export in its tracks.
We united because no civilised country can allow animals to be forced onto ships for a long, gruelling journey, trapped in tiny pens and thrown around in rough seas. It goes against everything we believe in.
John Hellström, the previous Chief Veterinary Officer and chairperson of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (the government’s animal welfare advisors) handed over this petition, which he initiated, signed by over 57,000 people. The petition was received by Damien O’Connor MP, who is now an opposition MP, but was the Minister of Agriculture in the previous Government and the person who finally brought about the end of live export by sea in 2023.
As the crowd gathered and persisted through the rain of a dreary Wellington day, we began our event with a song written by NZ comedian Karen O’Leary. She had a hard-hitting message for this Government that live exports were cruel, delivered with her guitar to the tune of ‘Old McDonald had a farm’.
🎶 “Should she put them on a boat? It might not even float. Send them out for weeks at sea. Standing in their poo and wee. Old McDonald had a farm ei-ei-o.” 🎶
Speakers from various organisations then took the stage. The SPCA shared persuasive statistics from their poll on live export, revealing that 84% of people believe we cannot guarantee the welfare of animals at their destination. Even many farmers are very much against live export. They don’t want animals suffering a hazardous journey to countries with little or no animal protection laws.
Unfortunately, the current Government didn’t bother to attend, despite being invited. So far, they are still set on their highly unpopular plan to introduce legislation to repeal the live export ban in 2025. If they were to do so, they’d be remembered as the first government in New Zealand to actually make animal welfare standards worse.
But we won’t let that happen. With 57,737 signatures, the petition sends a powerful message that cannot be ignored. We will continue our campaign to #ProtectTheBan until there’s a change of heart by those short-sighted MPs who are currently pandering to a tiny minority of live exporters who want to again profit from sending animals overseas to suffer.
Stay tuned for our upcoming actions on live export and sign up for our mailing list to stay informed about this and our other campaigns.
Watch our Campaign Director speaking outside Parliament
