Hog Farmers, Brace for Another Attack

YOUR FAVOURITE HAM SUGGESTS A FEAST OF FREE-RANGE
BABE
By Kelly Burke (www.smh.com.au)

Dec 5 - IT HAS been a decade since Australia's love affair with a
vulnerable little porker promised to threaten the viability of a
major primary industry. But the predicted fallout from the
success of the film Babe did not eventuate and the pork industry
survived.

Now, vegetarians and animal rights activists are being handed a
second opportunity on a plate.

The new film adaptation of E. B. White's Charlotte's Web - the
tender tale of a brave little spider's attempts to prevent Wilbur the
pig becoming Christmas dinner - is not scheduled for release
until September next year, but Voiceless, an animal rights group,
has already signed up one of the film's porcine stars.

Daisy, a cantankerous 100-kilogram sow, was rescued as a
piglet from a factory farm 12 months ago. With her brief acting
career already over, her new role as activist and social
conscience-raiser can now begin. And the pork industry is
nervous.

Today, Voiceless will mark the start of its second year with the
release of a graphic report into what the group says are
inhumane pig farming practices in NSW. And with Daisy by his
side, the Voiceless founder, Brian Sherman, along with a
supporter, Hugo Weaving, will call on consumers to boycott the
traditional Christmas ham and join the groundswell of support
for free-range pork products.

"We know that about 90 per cent of Christmas hams come from
factory farms with the pigs living in cramped concrete-floor
indoor cages," Mr Sherman said yesterday.

"We're asking people to consider where their meat comes from,
opt for free-range pork only and start demanding retailers for
labelling, so we can make that choice."

Although yet to see the report, the peak pork industry
organisation Australian Pork Limited is already preparing its
counteroffensive.

The organisation's spokesman, John Lamont, yesterday
described Voiceless as an extremist group lacking even
rudimentary knowledge of proper animal welfare practice.

"Groups such as these prey upon the ignorance of city kids with
no real connection to the land, filling their heads with nonsense,"
he said.

"These groups claim to stand for animal welfare, but advocate
farming practices which would result in horrendously cruel
outcomes."

Ref:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/12/04/1133631146694.html