The Royal New Zealand SPCA wants mandatory reporting by the poultry industry of any incidents leading to significant stock deaths.

"We are alarmed at reported comments by Bob Diprose, Executive Director of the Poultry Industry Association, that the industry has no obligation to report incidents such as the horrific suffocation of up to 60,000 hens on a Rangiora farm last week," says SPCA Chief Executive Officer, Peter Blomkamp.

"It should be mandatory for incidents of this nature to be reported to MAF or SPCA inspectors for independent investigation. This incident only came to our attention as a result of an anonymous tip-off.

"I believe that consumers would expect nothing less than for incidents involving major suffering of birds to be independently investigated," he says.

The SPCA will be pushing for mandatory reporting of such incidents to be included in the animal welfare codes covering the poultry industry, which are currently under revision.

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