CALVES LEFT TO STARVE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29301, 5 September 1960, Page 10

CALVES LEFT TO STARVE

Men Stop Work At Horotiu

(Neto Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 4. Starving bobby calves bellowed for milk this morning at the Horotiu works of the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company. Their desperate cries could’ be heard on the Great South road, half a mile away. The calves were held days past their normal killing time because of a labour dispute at the works. No killing has been done by slaughtermen and boners at Horotiu since Wednesday. To cut short the suffering of the calves, staff men worked all the week-end to kill them. The last was slaughtered today. An official of the company said today that the management was acutely aware of the plight of the calves.

The company’s representatives had continually appealed to the slaughtermen to kill the calves for humane reasons. These requests had been ignored. The dispute, he said, revolved around an interpretation of a provision in the award. Waikato farmers were advised by telephone during the weekend that bobby calves will not be collected tomorrow. Three executive members of the Waikato Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals visited the works this afternoon. One of their number, Mr A. McGregor, said the party felt the company was doing its best to prevent distress to the animal?. Staff men who had taken on the killing at short notice had done a great job. The secretary of the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union (Mr R. McKenzie) said tonight that Auckland freezing workers would meet at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

He and the union president (Mr T. Kelly), who works at Horotiu, he said, would attend the meeting.

They would later fly to Wellington for talks with representatives of the Freezing Works Employers’ Association on details of the incorporation of the 24 per cent, wage order.