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ANIMAL WELFARE

Rabbit abuser reprimanded for animal welfare violations

A farmer in southern Sweden has been reprimanded by animal welfare authorities for the severe neglect of more than 100 animals.

Published: 27 March 2010 09:28 CET

Animal welfare inspectors discovered more than 100 neglected rabbits, several horses and livestock on a farm in Sjöbo in southern Sweden, reported the Skanskan.se news site.

Authorities found overcrowded and dirty rabbit cages with insufficient hay and water. Horses and cows were confined in dirty and wet stalls. Several dead rabbits were found on the dungheap and the remains of two horses were left out in the open.

“This was a case of extreme neglect,” animal welfare inspector Sverker Olsson told Skanskan.se.

The farmer has been ordered to rectify the violations. If he doesn’t address the situation, he faces another injunction with the penalty of a fine.

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COWS

Italy’s top cheeses ‘products of cruelty’: campaign

Two of Italy's most famous cheeses, Parmesan and Grana Padano, are being produced with milk from emaciated, sometimes lame cows kept permanently indoors, an animal welfare group said on Saturday.

Published: 25 November 2017 13:19 CET
Italy's top cheeses 'products of cruelty': campaign
Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) released film it said it had recently obtained from nine farms in Italy's Po valley exposing the “shocking” conditions endured by exhausted cows wallowing in their own excrement.

The charity is using the footage to launch #notonmypasta, a campaign aimed at pushing producers of the two cheeses to introduce welfare guidelines for their milk suppliers, who manage an estimated 500,000 dairy cattle for a business with annual sales of some five billion euros.

“What our investigators exposed was the misery of life in a factory farm,” said Emma Slawinski, CIWF's Director of Campaigns. “There were extremely underweight, overworked animals being treated like milk machines, suffering just so we can add a topping to our pasta.

“Parmesan and Grana Padano cheeses are marketed as 'high quality' when in fact the reality for the cows couldn't be further from the truth. It's time to put these animals back on the land where they belong.”

A spokesman for the consortium of producers of Parmigiano Reggiano confirmed that production specifications for the upmarket cheese did not cover animal welfare because “it is not something that has an impact, if not marginally, on the quality of the product.”

But he insisted producers cared about welfare standards and said the consortium was in the process of introducing a certification system designed to ensure minimum animal welfare standards are observed.