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Dodgy pet food in doghouse
NEW procedures our pets but livestock imal-based pet food
for imported an- imal-based pet food through the mail will see items destroyed if they don’t pass muster.
as well.”
Pet food can contain
into Australia, you will need to make sure you are meeting Australia’s biosecurity conditions, otherwise you could see your product de- stroyed,” Dr Locke said.
Deputy Secretary of Biosecurity and Com- pliance Dr Chris Locke said the new measures were to control the risk of diseases.
disease pathogens, such as foot and mouth dis- ease, lumpy skin dis- ease, African swine fever and avian influ- enza, which can all in- fect livestock.
“Australia’s bios- ecurity system is world leading and has allowed us to keep a lot of pests and diseases at bay.
“Animal-based pet food often contains high-risk ingredients such as beef, pork, lamb, chicken and fish,” Dr Locke said.
“Unfortunately, people don’t just feed pet food to pets,” Dr Locke said.
“We can all do our part to support Aus- tralianbiosecurity.”
“If pet foods aren’t uptopar,theycanbea disease risk to not only
Studies have found that pet food can be fed to livestock, such as pigs and chickens, and can even be consumed by wild animals.
For more information, visit agriculture.gov.au/ biosecurity-trade/travel ling/bringing-mailing- goods#pet-food-and- treats.
“If you’re an importer and want to bring an-
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Smart sow representatives in the author’s mythical ‘United Poignant Porcines’ would quickly spot neglect and call it out at once.
Animal Farm’s poignant porcines
IMAGINE this... An Australian pork pro- ducer organisation run by pigs for pigs.
Right now, when cruel treatment is exposed and publicised by the media – typically only after tip- offs by the interventionist and occasionally illegal activities of animal-rights activists – our existing producer bodies never go so far as condemning the irresponsible producers.
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
What would it do?
What would it look like? Who better to represent
you but those of your ilk? Now, we know pigs are
smart sentient beings. Indeed, it’s commonly agreed that pigs are
Rather, such well-funded well-resourced bodies typically take a lame ap- proach – responding with generalisations about voluntary phase outs and welfare codes they’ve put in place.
smarter than dogs.
Some consider that pigs
such as dolphins and el- ephants.
looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
are even as smart as chim- panzees.
In various studies, pigs have demonstrated that they have long-term memory, can learn and comprehend a simple sym- bolic language and learn and remember complex symbols for particular ac- tions and objects.
Now that’s impressive.
ME
Sentient science tells us that pigs share the ability to perform a number of cognitive tasks with other highly intelligent animals,
Anyway, back to my pitch for a mythical pork producer body run by pigs.
If pigs had a mandate as representatives, they’d call out such disgusting cruel practices for what they are and they’d even name names where pos- sible.
Dogs, for example, guide blind humans, detect dan- gerous life-threatening objects, discover and un- cover drugs, detect can- cers and, aside from all of that, they befriend people – frequently becoming in- tegral members of human families.
What might such a body do that is not currently being successfully or ap- propriately done by state and federal producer bodies funded and man- dated to do the very best for their subjects – that is pigs and producers of pigs?
Producers who choose to neglect their pigs de- serve to be driven from the industry and, if need be, named and shamed.
So, when you consider what dogs can learn and what they do so well for us humans, imagine a world where pigs assumed our industry leadership roles and owned their destinies.
For a start, representa- tive pigs would loudly and publicly proclaim their disgust at the news that some of their own were being treated badly.
Surely the great majority who do care for the ani- mals in their care should want those on the outer outed.
Page 4 – Australian Pork Newspaper, November 2022
“The creatures outside
Speaking of language, who could possibly forget reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm?
In the novel, a group of barnyard animals over- throws and chases off their exploitive human masters and sets up an egalitarian society of their own.
Eventually the animals’ intelligent and power- loving leaders, the pigs, subvert the revolution and form a dictatorship, the bondage of which is even more oppressive and heartless than that of their former human masters.
Power to the pigs, at least in that fictional world.
A couple of memorable Orwellian Animal Farm quotes:
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Pigs leading the way would lead to better outcomes for pigs and alleviate some of the vested interests that humans bring to the table. www.porknews.com.au
My mythical ‘United Poignant Porcines’ would unashamedly take no pris- oners.