Direct Animal Action (DAA) has filmed covert footage at a Mainland Poultry egg farm on McKerrow Road, Waianakarua in the South Island. The footage shows a new type of egg production system called multi-tiered aviary.
“Direct Animal Action are extremely concerned about the introduction of multi-tiered aviaries to New Zealand,” says Deirdre Sims, spokesperson for Direct Animal Action.
“The industry is attempting to introduce this new system here in response to retailers shifting away from cage and colony eggs and consumers preference for cage-free,”
“Overseas, multi-tiered aviaries have been called ‘high-rises’ for chickens. They’re kept in stacked arrangements that allow a higher stocking density when compared with traditional barn and free-range systems,”
“But overseas research shows that multi-tiered aviaries have significant welfare concerns due to increased instances of broken bones, high death rates from cannibalism and reduced air quality because of a large moving flock. The industries push for an increase in stocking density will only exacerbate these issues,”
“What we filmed at Mainland Poultry’s McKerrow Road factory farm is not what Kiwi’s imagine when they spend their extra hard-earned dollars on cage-free eggs,”
“Direct Animal Action are campaigning to stop Mainland Poultry building their proposed multi-tiered aviary mega-farm in Orini and we’re also calling on our Government to stop the establishment of these systems in our country,” says Ms. Sims.
