Call to Halt New Zealand Salmon Farming Investment

New Zealand based animal welfare organization SAFE has condemned the Government’s NZ$11.72 million ($6.6 million) investment in salmon farming and is demanding an urgent review into endemic animal welfare breaches.

SAFE Campaign Manager Emily Hall says the funding allocated via the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is a concerning misdirection of government resources.

"Fish farms are quite simply under water factory farms, and this is an unregulated industry with no meaningful oversight of animal welfare."

SAFE also warns that intensive fish farming poses serious environmental risks including declining water quality and antibiotic pollution, making this use of government sustainability funding profoundly misguided.

SAFE says all fish confined to cages on land or at sea are prevented from exhibiting their normal patterns of behavior, adding the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) is well overdue in producing a code of welfare for farmed fishes.

"The fishes bred in these underwater cages subject to terrible conditions, including overcrowding, poor water quality, skeletal deformities, skin lesions and heat stress," says Hall.

SAFE says this week’s funding announcement also highlights a significant conflict of interest, with MPI being responsible for both the growth of intensive farming industries and animal welfare compliance.

However, the Government is