Concern over possible sheep boycott

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 3

Concern over possible sheep boycott

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New Zealand has been accused of seeking a world boycott of New Zealand lamb exports because of its export of live sheep. Dr Bill Sutton (Lab., Hawke’s Bay) told Parliament yesterday that the

R.S.P.C.A. had asked its international body, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, to support a boycott. “This move could deliver a death blow to the already shaky New Zealand meat industry,” he said. The R.S.P.C.A. office in Wellington was closed last evening and unavailable for comment. Dr Sut-

ton revealed the boycott in Parliament during the course of questions to the Acting Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr O’Flynn. The Minister said that the New Zealand Embassy in the United States had been engaged in urgent representation to the World Society in both Canada and the United

States to counter the boycott call. As a result, the World Society had deferred any decision until its next international board meeting, to be held in Luxemburg on May 28. This meeting would be attended by Mr Neil Wells, national director of the R.S.P.C.A., and by a senior representative of

the New Zealand Embassy in Brussels, Mr O’Flynn said. He also said that there was no evidence that the R.S.P.C.A. move had received any support from either farmers or meat workers In New Zealand. Any such boycott would damage the interests of the whole economy