Dear Phil,
Recently your private equity firm, Navis Capital, bought 75% of Mainland Poultry, New Zealand’s biggest egg producer. We understand that Mainland Poultry are now attempting to establish large colony and aviary systems.
Internationally, a number of countries are making the shift away from colony cages. They’re illegal in Switzerland with Austria banning them by 2020 and Belgium by 2024.
Supermarkets in Germany and the Netherlands refuse to sell colony eggs.
Here in New Zealand, all our major supermarkets have committed to phasing out cage eggs including colony.
Multi-tiered aviary systems don’t exist here in New Zealand on the large scale that Mainland Poultry are proposing and they haven’t been considered thoroughly by our animal welfare regulators.
Overseas, multi-tiered aviary systems have been shown to be problematic for hen welfare with increased instances of broken bones and cannibalism as well as reduced air quality due to a large moving flock.
New Zealanders don’t like factory farming and multi-tiered aviaries are not what Kiwi consumers imagine when they spend hard-earned extra dollars on “cage-free” eggs.
Direct Animal Action recently took a closer look at a Mainland Poultry egg farm in Whangarei to see how they farm their hens. We were shocked at what we found and so was the rest of New Zealand, with features across all major media outlets.
Mainland Poultry are now in the public eye for all the wrong reasons.
We have started a petition calling for Waikato District Council to decline Mainland Poultry’s plans to build a mega factory farm in Orini.
The locals in Orini oppose Mainland Poultry’s plans along with politicians and other animal welfare organisations. Last year, we successfully prevented a new Craddock Farm colony egg facility from being built, through a coordinated campaign of public awareness, resource consent experts, legal experts and targeted pressure tactics.
We will continue to expose Mainland Poultry’s plans for aviary and colony cages. These systems are not welcome in New Zealand and we will ensure they do not become established here.
Phil, Direct Animal Action are calling on you and Navis Capital to shut down operation of Mainland Poultry immediately and drop all plans for expansion.
Sincerely,
Deirdre Sims
Spokesperson
Direct Animal Action
Auckland, New Zealand
