Welfare of animals an issue for all: vet chief

Everyone needs to take responsibility for animal welfare, New Zealand Veterinary Association president Richard Wild says.

Dr Wild was a guest speaker at the association's deer branch conference in Queenstown last week, where he discussed the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's animal welfare compliance and enforcement plan.

Work is well under way on the plan which involves representatives from major industries and agencies working mainly with production animals.

All industry stakeholders needed to be involved, ensuring everyone knew their roles. Maf could not do it all, Dr Wild said.

It was early days and there was quite a lot of work to do and a lot of "meeting of minds". However, there had been more communication and co-ordination over the past couple of years than in the past, he said.

The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (Nawac) had been fairly active and there had been new codes of welfare issued for dairy cattle, dogs, sheep and beef and a revised code issue for pigs.

Dr Wild, who steps down as president at the end of the month, said the three-year stint had been "fantastic".

Most of the issues within the veterinary profession in New Zealand were no different from those faced by other countries.

Profitable veterinary practices, with good remuneration to attract people to the profession, had to be a key. Like any profession, it needed to continually change and evolve.

Dr Wild, whose "day job" is managing animal welfare programmes for Maf in the slaughter business, said he would like better arrangements for stock procurement, saying if it was not being "trucked from one end of the country to the other", that meant improved animal welfare and provided greater efficiencies.