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Animal Welfare group ‘Voiceless’ calls for welfare assurance scheme for Australian dairy production


Animal welfare group Voiceless says the dairy industry has been ‘flying under the radar’ of public scrutiny, and that needs to change.

The group is preparing to release a report, aimed at consumers, which it says will ‘lift the veil of secrecy’ about the treatment of Australian dairy cows and calves.

Voiceless spokeswoman Elise Burgess said the aim isn’t to shut down dairy farming, but to start a conversation between consumers, industry and government.

“The purpose of this report is just to get people thinking about dairy, where it’s coming from, and also have government and industry look at the practices that are happening and the ones where we can really start to improve welfare,” she said.

“We talk to consumers about certain aspects of the dairy industry that are inherently cruel and the role they can play in that, whether that’s refraining from dairy in their diet, or just pursuing higher welfare dairy.

“It’s very much a personal choice and we don’t like to be too prescriptive, but it is important that people make an informed decision.”

The report raises a number of concerns about tail docking, dehorning and disbudding (the removal of horn buds from calves), as well as the treatment of male or ‘bobby’ calves, and the workload of mature cows.

Voiceless is urging consumers to reduce their dairy consumption, arguing that high consumer demand drives poorer welfare outcomes.

Ms Burgess said the Voiceless researchers found many consumers didn’t realise dairy cows had to keep calving to produce milk.

“A lot of people don’t realise that a cow must have a calf every 13 months in order to be able to produce a high volume of milk, and our biggest concern is, firstly, the separation of the cow and calf. We’ve documented scientific evidence how distressing that process is.

“Then, also, the early slaughter of around 800,000 bobby calves every year – these are calves that are born and slaughtered within five days,” she said.

“All of this is driven by high production, by people wanting to have more milk, so farmers have to produce more.”

Dairy industry defends its welfare practices

But the industry said calving once every 13 months did not place an unacceptable burden on dairy cows.

Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell said there were also specific reasons why the industry recommended the early removal of calves from their mothers.

“In states where bovine Johne’s disease is an issue, the recommendation for the least possibility of Johne’s being transferred from generation to generation is the removal of the calf within 12 hours,” he said.

“So the cow does have the ability to feed their calf with colostrum, and farmers, generally speaking, feed the colostrum as well, to make sure that calf has the best opportunity not to have disease.

“There’s also been discussion around that we overwork cows.

“But our genetics over a number of years haven’t been just for milk production, but they’re been for those cows to have longevity, fertility, to not have lameness. There’s a whole raft of things we look for in our breeding programs that aren’t about production, they’re about the welfare of the cows.

“So I think that as an industry, we do look after our animals.”

Both Australian Dairy Farmers and Dairy Australia had many discussions with Voiceless over the two years in which the welfare group’s report was compiled.

Mr Campbell said many of those talks were constructive, and all parties agreed there was some common ground.

For example, the industry itself has proposed a ban on tail docking. That’s already been endorsed by the Victorian Government, but Mr Campbell says industry wants that to be a national standard.

He said the industry was also working through welfare standards and guidelines for dehorning and disbudding, including discussions about pain relief.

But Mr Campbell rejected a key recommendation of the Voiceless report: that a welfare assurance scheme be created, to certify farmers who voluntarily met the highest possible welfare standards.

Ms Burgess said similar independent certification schemes had proven successful in Australia for the poultry industry, and for dairy farmers in the United Kingdom.

“So the certifier will go to their farm and make sure that they’re not killing bobby calves within 12 hours of life, or they’re not dehorning. In some cases farmers pay to be part of that scheme,” she said.

“As we’ve seen in the UK, because farmers are pledging to these assurance schemes, they are able to charge a higher premium for their product. So that’s how costs will be recouped.”

But Mr Campbell said an assurance scheme would send consumers the wrong message.

“That then makes an assumption that if someone hasn’t actually signed on to that, that they have animal health and welfare practices that are substandard, and that isn’t the case,” he said.

“I think we need to have an industry as a whole that is prepared to put its hand up and say, ‘we have got good animal welfare practices’, and at the end of the day we’ve got to have profitable farms and that is only going to be achieved by us doing the right thing.”

Mr Campbell said the dairy industry would continue talking to groups like Voiceless, Animals Australia and the RSPCA, to put the case that the health and welfare of animals was the industry’s priority.

“We recognise the fact that we need to do the right thing by our animals and we are prepared to talk to these people, but we’ve got businesses to run and we’ve got to be able to run our businesses effectively.

“The vast majority of farmers recognise the fact that they need good practices in order to have a good business, and I think that’s extremely important for people to understand.”

The full Voiceless report will be released on January 28.

Source: ABC Rural


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