Kiwis oppose live animal exports due to welfare concerns

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-04 14:00

New Zealand

Photo by Neil Bates on Unsplash

A new study funded by the RNZSPCA found that more than half of 2000 NZers surveyed were against reversing the 2023 ban on live animal exports, as the current government said they planned to do. While farmers were more knowledgeable about the live export industry, their welfare concerns were similar to non-farming people. The study found that rather than being worried about specific regulatory gaps, many people had deeply held ethical views about animal welfare that were unlikely to change even if they were given more information. Therefore, public values need to be central to government policy, the authors argue.

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Research Frontiers, Web page Currently only the abstract is available online.

Journal/
conference: Frontiers in Animal Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: EthicoNZ, Hamilton, Moose Data, Hamilton, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Auckland

Funder: RNZSPCA funded this research. This research received no external funding.

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