I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to improve the welfare of pigs by prohibiting teeth-clipping, tail-docking and castration, limiting the use of tusk reduction and regulating sow stalls and farrowing crates.
I start by thanking the National Animal Rights Association, NARA, especially Laura Broxson and Dr. Alice Brough. This important legislation could not have been drafted without their help. I also thank the many other campaigners and supporters in the Gallery from NARA, Animal Rebellion Ireland and My Lovely Horse Rescue. We had a lively protest in front of the Dáil earlier, which showed the strength of public opinion on this issue. We have banned fur farming and 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 Ireland carried out two very important investigations last year into the kind of abhorrent practices going on in Irish pig farms every day. All the pig farms were selected at random and activists recorded extensive videos of the abuses. All of them, not one or two, 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 it, but there is no sign of it doing anything about it. Sick and dying pigs with open wounds and weeping, open sores were left to suffer and die in filthy conditions. Pigs had 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 up to 95% of Irish pigs still have their tails docked. Sows were trapped in farrowing crates and sow stalls so narrow they could not turn around or move more than a few centimetres. This is to ensure 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 it. Litter sizes have increased from ten piglets in 2000 to 15 today because of genetic selection, again with no regard to 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 lives indoors from the moment they are born. People are not used to seeing pigs being farmed and running around on 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.
The Bill being introduced by People Before Profit 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 it would take action to ban sow stalls and farrowing crates, it passed the buck to the European Union. It cited an EU Commission review of EU animal welfare legislation. As part of that, I was told 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. The Department also said it is taking measures to promote and move away from the use of sow farrowing crates and stalls. This included through grant aid to pig farmers. The Department, therefore, acknowledges that these practices are bad and should be phased out, but it is still dragging its feet. As campaigners and ordinary people, we need to hold those feet to the fire and force it to act. We did not wait for the European Union when we banned fur farming, we did not wait for the European Union when we banned wild animals in circuses and we do not 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 prioritised over the welfare of so many. Some 3.5 million pigs are forced to live and die in inhumane conditions in Ireland every year. This has to stop and this Bill would stop it.