An advertisement promoting welfare standards in the British pig industry has been banned from being published again after it was ruled it was misleading to the public.
The British Pig Executive's (BPEX) advert, which claimed British pig farms had very high welfare, was deemed unacceptable by the Advertising Standards Authority today (11 February).
The ASA said some aspects of the UK pig industry, such as the number of piglets which are tail docked and the number of finishing pigs that had access to straw bedding, may not be seen by some as a very high level of welfare.
The ruling over the advert, which was published in national newspapers and billboards and called for help for the British pig industry, came after a complaint from Compassion in World Farming.
Philip Lymbery, CIWF chief executive, said the ruling was a victory for consumers and was a spur for honesty in how food is produced and an improvement in food labelling.
“Farmers and retailers need to wake up to consumer awareness and stop hoodwinking people with false messages,” he said.
“The majority of the pigs we consume in Britain are subjected to unlawful tail-docking, are not given straw bedding and are kept in overcrowded barren conditions.
“By moving to higher welfare systems such as outdoor rearing, free-range and organic British pig farmers could just save their bacon.”
But BPEX said it would continue to maintain that the Quality Standard Mark for British pigs reflected very high welfare standards particularly when compared with the rest of the EU.
The banning of sow stalls by UK Government legislation since 1999, which is still widely practised on the Continent and the continued use of castration, which is prohibited within the QSM, lie at the core of this claim, it said.
Until such time as there is a level playing field on welfare standards across the EU, BPEX will continue to promote its QSM on the basis of very high quality welfare.
BPEX head of marketing Chris Lamb said: “We lost on a technicality because we did not connect the claim made directly with a comparison to the rest of Europe, particularly with reference to sow stalls and castration. We shall obviously make sure we do in the future.”
And BPEX chairman Stewart Houston added: “Welfare is an important area for the British pig industry and BPEX will continue to maintain its standards whilst at the same time engaging in constructive debate to raise standards still further.”
The ruling will come as a disappointment to the British pig industry, which had been enjoying a wave of public support in recent weeks following a programme on pig production by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
The industry has also been at the forefront of campaigns for better labelling of pig meat to show consumers clearly how and where pigmeat is reared and processed.
What the advert said:
“British pig farms have very high welfare standards assured by the Quality Standard Mark. And well cared-for animals mean better quality meat…Help the pig farmers. Sign our petition for fairer prices at pigsareworthit.com and always look for the Pork Quality Standard Mark”.