Paul Murphy demands ban on pig mutilation and sow stalls

I want to start by thanking NARA, the National Animal Rights Association, especially Laura Broxon and Dr Alice Broff. This important legislation could not have been drafted without their help. I also want to thank the many other campaigners and supporters who are here in the gallery today from NARA, from Animal Rebellion and from my lovely Horse Animal Rescue. We had a lively protest in front of the Dáil earlier showing the strength of public opinion on this. We have banned fur farming, we have banned the use of wild animals in circuses. This bill can be the next step for animal rights and animal welfare in this country. NARA and Animal Rebellion carried out two very important investigations last year into the kind of apparent practices that are going on in Irish pig farms every single day. All of the pig farms were selected at random and activists recorded extensive videos of the abuses. All of them, not one or two, but all of them showed pigs and piglets living in appalling conditions that are very hard for anyone to watch. The Department of Agriculture has seen the footage because it has been sent to them, but there is no sign of them doing anything about it. Sick and dying pigs with open wounds and weeping open sores, left to suffer and to die in filthy conditions. Pigs with their tails painfully docked or cut off right up to the root. Tail docking is supposed to be banned, but loopholes in the current law are so wide that up to 95% of Irish pigs still have their tails docked. Sows trapped in farrowing crates and sow stalls so narrow that they cannot turn around or move more than a few centimetres. That is to ensure that they never get a moment's break from suckling the 15 piglets now born in each litter. Anyone who has breastfed a baby would wince at the torture of that. Pigs sizes have increased from 10 piglets in the year 2000 to 15 today because of genetic selection, again with no regard for sow welfare. The only concern seems to be for the number of pigs produced and the size of the profits to be made. Most pigs in Ireland spend their whole life indoors from the moment they are born. It is not a sight people are not used to seeing pigs being farmed running around in grass because they are inside for their entire lives. The only time they experience fresh air or sunlight is when they are being loaded onto a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse. No animal should be forced to live a life like that, but especially not intelligent, sociable animals like pigs. People Before Profits bill today seeks to address some of the worst abuses in the pig industry. Section 1 bans the mutilation of pigs, including teeth clipping, tail docking and castration. Section 2 outlaws sow stalls and farrowing crates. When I asked the Department of Agriculture in April if they would take action to ban sow stalls and farrowing crates, they passed the book to the European Union. They cited an EU Commission review of EU animal welfare legislation. As part of that they say, quote, there is a commitment to phase out the use of individual animal confinement, including sow crates and stalls, in line with scientific evidence, and pending the outcome of an impact assessment, end quote. They also say they are taking, quote, measures to promote a move away from the use of sow farrowing crates and stalls, end quote, including through grant aid to pig farmers. So they acknowledge that these practices are bad. They acknowledge that these practices should be phased out, but still they are dragging their feet. We need to, campaigners need to, ordinary people need to hold their feet to the fire and force them to act. We didn't wait for the European Union when we banned fur farming. We didn't wait for the European Union when we banned wild animals in circuses. We don't have to wait for the rest of the European Union when it comes to banning pig mutilation, sow stalls and farrowing crates. The pig industry in this country is relatively small. Only a small number of pig farmers would need to be compensated for hardship when these inhumane conditions are banned. They can and should be supported financially to transition to other less damaging forms of agriculture. It is simply unacceptable for the profits of a few to be put over the welfare of so many. Three and a half million pigs are forced to live and die in inhumane conditions in Ireland every single year. This has to stop and this bill would stop it. Thank you very much. Thank you.