CRUELTY TO PIGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 10

CRUELTY TO PIGS.

USE OF INSTRUMENT. TO PREVENT THEM, ROOTING. MINISTER UPHOLDS SOCIETY. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) MORRINSVILLE, Tuesday. Comment on a matter of great interest to dairy farmers keeping pigs, namely, tho most humane way of preventing pigs from rooting up the turf, as they instinctively try to do, is contained in a letter from the Minister of Agriculture, tho Hon. C. E. Macmillan, to the Morrinsvillo branch of the Farmers' Union. Recently a resident of the Morrinsvillo district was fined £2, when prosecuted on the information of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for cutting the snouts of several baconer pigs with an instrument in common use known to farmers as a "pigrooter," which cuts a V-shaped piece out of tho hard end of the animal's snout. The attention of the Minister was drawn to the magistrate's comments, but the Minister's reply upholds the attitude of tho magistrate in this matter. The magistrate, Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., had pointed out when giving his decision in tho Morrinsvillo Court that there was another means of preventing rooting, namely, the insertion of a metal ring in the nostril of the pig, and therefore tho use of the "pigrooter" seemed unnecessary and cruel, and an abuse of tho animals which should be prohibited. "I have had inquiries instituted through officers of the Department of Agriculture," stales tho Minister's letter, "and it must ho stated that the instrument known as the 'pigrooter' is not looked upon as being as effective as ringing tho pig for the prevention of rooting. Furthermore, it must bo admitted that the wounds made by such instruments very often do not heal readily, and when infection occurs sores develop. This all tends towards the view expressed by the magistrate, that the use of tho 'pigrooter' must often cause great pain and suffering to the animals operated upon. It would appear, therefore, that tho proceedings taken by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the matter were justified, and that no action can be taken by me in the direction of securing permission for the use of the instrument."