I read an update on twitter today, thought ‘ho hum’ and obviously filed it away until my brain was ready to process it. Well I was ready to think about it when I was driving home from netball this evening. Here’s the tweet Soooo…..a little …
What I had suspected was a particularly nasty case of Man-Flu has turned out to be a bit more serious as Dave is now into his 24th hour in residence at North Shore hospital. Maybe it’s his appendix maybe it’s giardia WE JUST DON’T KNOW. …
This is an awesome example of a major corporation putting things right;
Cadbury you have redeemed yourself in 5 ways I never thought possible. You listened to me when I told you I wasn’t down with you killing Orangutans (OK indirectly…) to make me fat happy and high on choccy. I couldn’t believe it when you commented on my blog last week and said you wanted to make ammends, set things right and send me a present! and then you found me on twitter and whispered the same sweet nothings.
And then today, you (OK Courier Post) came through with the goods.
Yeah – Cadbury loves me AND DAMN-IT I LOVE YOU TOO CADS!
All is forgiven, I’m pretty sure that I can forget about that whole Palm Oil fiasco, just don’t be putting any more nasty shit in our chocolate again and things will be just fine.
Your letter was sweet though, don’t be mad that I am sharing it, but I think everyone needs to know that you are truly sorry and are working to make it up to the chocoholics of New Zealand.
It’s nice to have you back Cads
Love Melissa, your BFF xxxx
The Outrageous Fortune final was last night and it was insanely insane. The ending was the ultimate cliffhanger (Pascalle or Sheryl?) and as a result Twitter exploded. #outrageous quickly became a trending topic followed by Outrageous Fortune. Two New Zealand topics in the top 5 …
So I recently spent $99 on registering our guard dog Louie with our new local council. This is the type of burn-your-money expenditure that comes with dog ownership and that is a fact of life. However, we received in the mail today a Dog Owners …
You know what I’m talking about.
I was on my way to work. I had just left the ghetto-assed place where I was staying / nannying in Atlantic Beach, Florida and was heading for my lovely job at video production company Atlantic Video in Jacksonville Beach. It was one of those weird mornings when you get in your car and you’re not listening to the radio, you just keep flicking stations trying to find some music. That’s what I was doing. I was flicking stations but there was no music on any of them. That’s when I started listening. It was 8.46am and flight 11 had just hit the north tower of The World Trade Centre. I don’t remember the drive to work, but it was probably quick. I do remember calling my boss and telling him to turn on the news now.
I got to work within 5 minutes and flicked ALL of the TV’s on – it was a video production company so there were monitors everywhere. The networks were going crazy and as we all know there were cameras rolling in New York after the first plane hit. I saw the second plane hit at 9.03am and like the rest of America I was knocked back in my seat and couldn’t take my eyes of the screen for the rest of the day.
I grabbed the phone and called my parents in New Zealand. It was the middle of the night and I told them to TURN ON THEIR TVs NOW. It was awful, it was impossible to convey what had happened to my family on the other side of the world who had been sleeping only moments ago and could in no way comprehend the enormity of what had just happened on US soil.
Thirty minutes later it happened again, this time into the Pentagon. Thirty minutes after that it happened again, this time in Pennsylvania.
David and I will never forget that most horrific of all days. Though it was without a doubt the worst day in living memory, I am so glad that I was in America on that day. It sounds like a strange thing to say, but having lived through it with my American friends and then later marrying a US citizen, I will never forget how the country stopped and we all cried together that day, how everyone hurt so bad for all of the victims, and how the Super Power that so many around the world hate so much, became so human to me.
I love The United States and will never forget September 11th, 2001 and the hideous suffering that occurred that day, and every year since.
I wasn’t going to weigh in on this topic but my opinions on the matter keep running about in my head and what’s a blog for if not your own personal soapbox right? Background (for the foreign peeps) This weekend past, New Zealand’s first Telethon …
Full List of Stuff White People Like How classic is this! The stereotype is so perfectly broken down by this list that it MUST have been written by a white person – though I doubt that they would be able to call themselves a redneck. …
Thank you for your correspondence concerning the treatment of intensively farmed pigs and the footage screened on the ‘Sunday’ programme.
The conditions depicted in the footage were highly disturbing and unacceptable. The Minister of Agriculture has made it clear to his officials that animal welfare is an absolute priority of this Government and that we would not accept cruelty to animals under any circumstances.
The pig farm at the centre of the ‘Sunday’ story has been identified by MAF, and animal welfare investigators have carried out a full inspection of the farm.
If the farm is found to be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act then MAF has the power to prosecute the responsible parties.
Individual housing systems were created to help manage the health and welfare of the animals, in addition to increasing productivity. The purpose of individually housing pregnant sows in stalls is to prevent aggression between them, which can lead to the loss of their piglets. Farrowing crates are used to protect the piglets, once they are born.
The impact of these systems (principally in restricting animals’ ability to perform their natural behaviours) is now also widely recognised.
The Animal Welfare Act 1999 (the Act) is the principal legislation on the care and welfare of animals in New Zealand. There is also an Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2005 (the code), developed by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) and issued by the previous Government under the Act in December 2004. NAWAC is an independent expert advisory panel whose membership includes SPCA and Maori representatives, veterinarians, and animal welfare experts.
The code expands on the Act’s general requirements by setting minimum standards and recommending best practices in relation for the care and management of pigs.
When developing the code NAWAC considered all of the then available evidence for and against various production methods and housing systems, as well as the public submissions received. NAWAC agreed that the long term use of sow stalls and the use of farrowing crates can restrict the animals’ ability to perform natural behaviours and was far from ideal.
However, it considered that the alternatives available at the time did not guarantee a better overall outcome for their welfare. For this reason, NAWAC did not recommend a prohibition on these systems in the 2005 code. It did however recommend that a number of measures be included to improve the welfare of pigs under existing management systems.
NAWAC will review the code of welfare for pigs this year and preliminary work as part of this review has begun. The Minister has instructed NAWAC to treat this review as an absolute priority due to the high level of public concern about this issue.
As such he would expect to issue a new code of welfare for pigs by the end of the year.
NAWAC will ensure that it is fully aware of the latest research and developments from New Zealand and overseas, especially in the area of animal housing. There will be an opportunity for the public to make submissions on any proposed changes to the code. I urge all concerned New Zealanders to take this opportunity and make their views known to NAWAC.
If you wish to be notified when the draft revised code is released for public consultation, please send an email to MAF at animalwelfare@maf.govt.nz with your request.
It is important that animal welfare policy is developed reflecting good practice, scientific knowledge, public expectations and ethical treatment of animals. The NAWAC process takes these factors into account, and I am confident will deliver a revised code that meets the high expectations of the Government and the New Zealand public.
Thank you again for expressing your concerns.
Hon John Key
Prime Minister
MP for Helensville
News in New Zealand this week is the much publicized disclosure of video demonstrating the vile state of the pork industry. Local comedian Mike King, formerly the spokesperson for the NZ pork industry snuck into a pig jailpig farm and filmed the undersized sow cages …