SAFE (Save Animals From Exploitation) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

group, with a vision to create an ethical Aotearoa (New Zealand) that ensures the rights of animals. Its purpose is to educate, inform and empower people to make cruelty-free, plant-based and vegan choices.

History

SAFE evolved out of an

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

branch of the

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection Cruelty Free International is an animal protection and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal experiments. They organise certification of cruelty-free products which are marked with the symbol of a leaping bunny. It wa ...

. This group was renamed Save Animals from Experiments in 1972, and was renamed again to Save Animals from Exploitation in 1987. The organisation is now known as SAFE, and it is a registered charity and an incorporated society.

Structure

The organisation has annual and lifetime members and is governed by a Board of Directors. It has approximately 20 staff and 2,000 volunteers. There are SAFE offices in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

and

. As SAFE is a charity, it is entirely dependent on donations from its supporters.

Politics

SAFE has received support from Auckland mayor John Banks and Mike King, former politician Tim Barnett, actress

Robyn Malcolm Robyn Jane Malcolm (born 15 March 1965) is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the New Zealand soap opera '' Shortland Street''. She is best known for six seasons of playing Cheryl West, ma ...

, Gareth Hughes and Sue Kedgely from the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

. Leading up to the 2008 General Election, SAFE's Animal Welfare Policy Survey 2008 rated the country's political parties' animal welfare policies. SAFE Ambassador Hans Kriek declared that "the Green Party was a shining light having by far the best and most comprehensive animal welfare policy of any party in New Zealand". Ratings higher than 0 out of 10 were also given to

United Future United Future New Zealand, usually known as United Future, was a centrist political party in New Zealand. The party was in government between 2005 and 2017, first alongside Labour (2005–2008) and then supporting National (2008–2017). U ...

, the

Māori Party Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

and the National Party. This could be construed as an endorsement of the Green Party, or of the National Party above the Labour Party.

Dairy industry campaigns

In 2015, SAFE released a footage that was secretly filmed of workers in the winters of 2014 and 2015 abusing calves. One video showed truck drivers throwing calves roughly into a truck, while another showed a slaughterhouse worker kicking and beating calves before clubbing them to death. A number of workers were subsequently fired, with the slaughterhouse owner claiming that she wasn't informed of the abuse earlier. Following the airing of the videos on TV, SAFE supporters protested outside

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

's headquarters in Hamilton and SAFE . The slaughterhouse closed after being investigated by the Ministry of Primary Industries and the worker responsible for the abuse was sentenced to home detention. Shortly after the release of the video, SAFE ran an ad in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's'' Saturday edition, saying New Zealand dairy was "contaminated with cruelty". The ad read: "In New Zealand millions of newborn calves are taken from their mothers so that people can drink milk meant for them". The president of

Federated Farmers Federated Farmers of New Zealand is a lobby and advocacy group for all farmers: arable including fruit and vegetables, dairy and meat and their often remote communities. It has a network of 24 regional organisations and six industry groups. F ...

responded saying that separating cows from calves "is simply the reality of dairy farming". New Zealand prime minister, John Key, said running the ad in Britain was "a form of economic sabotage".

References

External links