Any of you who think animal welfare issues are just another of todays PC issues that have got out of control, need to think again and look at the blog response www.interest.co.nz have had when they broke this story. All farmers should tread carefully in this area and public perception is a strong influence in food and negative stories can be damaging. Also look at reaction to David Carters response to the issue, on a later story. Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9am in association with ASB, starting with news broken late yesterday by interest.co.nz of an animal neglect story at New Zealand's biggest privately owned dairy farming group. We have obtained a video showing calves dehydrating to death on a farm within the Crafar Farms group. This farm was badly managed and Allan Crafar has been prosecuted before for environmental transgressions and animal neglect MAF was tipped off about the neglect but didn't turn up for nearly three days. MAF also tipped off the Crafars that it was coming, allowing them to cover up much of the abuse. MAF, Fonterra and the banks who lent the Crafars NZ$200 million have some questions to answer. Why wasn't Crafar Farms prosecuted and shut down? Why is Fonterra still taking the milk and why are the banks letting Crafar stay in control?
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