NSPCA urged to rejoin livestock welfare body

South Africa’s red meat industry has urged the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) to reconsider its decision to withdraw its membership from the country’s Livestock Welfare Coordinating Committee (LWCC).

- Lloyd Phillips

An NSPCA statement said that the council could no longer be part of the LWCC when the majority of the committee’s members had “moved from a position where they previously opposed the live export of animals by sea, to one that actively promotes the trade”.

Citing allegations of animal health and welfare abuses, the NSPCA vowed to unceasingly oppose such exports. To date, it had been unsuccessful in its various legal applications to have the controversial practice permanently banned.

Leaders of the National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (NERPO), the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO), and the LWCC, separately called on the NSPCA to rethink its membership withdrawal.