Have your say: Improving animal welfare standards for sheep and beef cattle

The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee is calling on New Zealanders to provide feedback on new welfare standards for sheep and beef cattle. This is a chance for you to have your say on how these animals are treated, and we at SPCA encourage you to make a submission.

Even if you believe that the draft code falls short, it’s important to submit - your submission becomes part of the official record. Advisory committees and policymakers review these to understand public and sector sentiment. Without your voice, they may assume silence equals support or indifference.

Thoughtful or passionate submissions can show there’s a strong public mandate for higher standards, creating political and institutional pressure to improve future versions of the code or strengthen enforcement.

SPCA works with Government and industry on a number of issues to improve the welfare of sheep and beef cattle.

The proposed code of welfare makes some improvements, for example in proposing to ban electroimmobilisation (a technique using electricity to restrain cattle without sedation or anaesthesia), and in requiring sheep to be insensible before being killed on-farm. The code also includes a significant amount of valuable guidance on topics like normal animal behaviour, and the importance of preparing for adverse events.

However, there are some areas where the code requires more work. SPCA's key concerns include:

• Shade and shelter

Many New Zealanders have seen pastorally farmed animals without access to shade in summer, or kept in muddy paddocks without access to a dry lying area in winter.

Unfortunately, the draft code of welfare does not explicitly require shade or shelter (except for newborn lambs or calves who have been removed from their mothers). Instead, the code requires “the means to minimise the risk of thermal stress.”

SPCA advocates for clear, enforceable standards that require shade and shelter for farmed animals. Our organisation considers that requirements for vague concepts such as “the means to minimise the risk of thermal stress” creates a risk that the code will fail to meet the purposes of the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

• Intensive winter grazing

While the proposed code of welfare contains some minimum standards addressing some aspects of intensive winter grazing, no directly enforceable regulations are proposed. Minimum standards are not directly enforceable, and stakeholder groups like the Intensive Winter Grazing Taskforce have recommended that intensive winter grazing be regulated instead. Previously proposed regulations for intensive winter grazing, associated with the dairy cattle code of welfare, have not been progressed.

SPCA opposes intensive wintering grazing practices that result in poor welfare conditions. All animals kept outdoors must have access to well-drained areas to prevent the accumulation of wet muddy ground conditions that have negative impacts to hoof health, resting, lying, and feeding behaviours.

• Pain relief during painful procedures

The proposed code does not require the use of pain relief during tail docking or castration.

SPCA advocates that pain relief be provided during all painful husbandry procedures. While such a requirement may need to be implemented over time to ensure it is practical, that makes it all the more important to set a timeframe for requiring pain relief now - codes of welfare are not reviewed often.

• Feedlots

The proposed code allows for the farming of animals in feedlots. Feedlots are not required to provide shade, shelter, or enrichment.

SPCA opposes feedlot systems, and advocates that all sheep and cattle should have access to pasture and grazing in the grass-growing season.

• Dairy sheep and lambs

The code of welfare sets some standards for dairy sheep, but does not address the fate of lambs in the dairy sheep industry.

SPCA advocates that all calves, kids, lambs and fawns are reared with their mothers on pasture and in stable, long-term social groups.

Email your feedback on the draft code by 5pm on 15 July 2025 to animal.consult@mpi.govt.nz.

You can use our key points above as a start, and we encourage you to add to them and make your submission your own – a personal statement has more impact. A single submission backed by reasoning, evidence, and lived experience can have a significant impact.

SPCA will be making a substantive submission on the code ourselves. Read more about the submissions we make here.

All the standards for sheep and beef cattle are being reviewed, so there may be more topics that you wish to submit on.

For more detail, you can access the entire draft code of welfare here.