A PROTEST by controversial animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) appears to have generated little interest, going by the reaction in Brisbane on Tuesday.
While the apparently near-naked, pregnant woman did draw the attention of police, the protest against the use of sow stalls failed to hold the attention of curious office workers crossing King George Square during their lunch break.
In a media release issued by PETA, the point of the protest was to highlight "that pigs and other animals raised and killed for food suffer every day of their lives and are denied everything that's natural and important to them".
"I will only be confined for an hour - but for mother pigs on factory farms, this is their life," said Clare Knight, a spokeswoman for PETA Australia.
"We're asking people to stop supporting the abuse of animals by going vegan."
After seeing the images, Laurie Brosnan, co-owner of Bettafield - one of Queensland’s largest family-owned pig operations – said he was disappointed PETA had failed to acknowledge sow stalls have largely already been eliminated from the industry.
“The Australian pig industry is voluntarily phasing [sow stalls] out without any support from the government,” Mr Brosnan said.
Bettafield runs 2000 breeding sows and finished phasing out sow stalls 15 months ago.
Mr Brosnan said producing “happy pigs” was vital to a viable industry and many large operators had voluntarily phased out sow stalls following an industry commitment to have them removed by 2017.
He said financial constraints were the only reason why the Australian pig industry hadn’t completely phased out the stalls.
“Those that are in the industry would have plans to change over and if they don’t, they would have a strategy to exit the industry,” he explained.
Mr Brosnan also jokingly added that “if PETA were really serious about animal welfare they would’ve done [the protest] last week, but it was too cold then.”
RSPCA criticises China live export deal
In a Facebook post earlier this week, the RSPCA criticised a new agreement, which could see Australia export up to a million head of live cattle to China a year.
"More animals will suffer now that the government has signed a deal allowing live exports to China," the post read.
"Tell Minister Barnaby Joyce Member for New England Australia says NO to live exports.
"Tell Shadow Minister Joel Fitzgibbon MP to stand up for our animals and our meat workers."
The Facebook statement was accompanied by a picture of cattle said to be pictured on a ship during a voyage to Egypt.
