Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Senior Scientific Officer, Melina Tensen, to find out more about bobby calves in the Australian dairy industry, and how we can improve their welfare.  Many Australians value dairy in their diets but may not be aware of the plight of male dairy calves which are often considered a by-product of the dairy industry. For a dairy cow to produce milk she must first give birth to a calf. In the dairy industry female calves are kept and reared as replacements for the milking herd, but male calves are surplus to the industry’s needs.  In Australia, ar ..read more

Brian Daly interviews Lauren Mackenzie, Responsible Sourcing Manager for Agriculture at Coles.  Lauren’s interest in agriculture started from a young age when she reared her own cattle and became involved in all aspects of their care. Including their veterinary treatments, which gave her early exposure to how antibiotics are used in animal production. Fast forward to the present day and Lauren’s role at Coles covers a host of responsible sourcing initiatives, in which animal welfare plays a big role. Antibiotics are a necessary part of providing animals with a good quality of life, by mea ..read more

Brian Daly interviews Cordina Farms CEO, Louise Cordina, to find out more about the meat chicken industry in Australia and what’s been done to improve chicken welfare.  Chickens that are grown for meat production (also called broiler chickens) are genetically very different from layer hens (which are bred to produce eggs). Meat chickens have been selectively bred over many generations to grow and gain weight very rapidly, with birds ready for processing at 4-6 weeks old.  The RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme standards for meat chickens stipulate specific conditions in which birds must ..read more

Brian Daly interviews Coles’ Head of Quality and Responsible Sourcing, James Whittaker, to find out more about what Coles is doing to improve animal welfare, particularly with their free-range pork suppliers.  Coles Free Range Pork comes from pigs raised to the RSPCA’s animal welfare standards. These standards are comprehensive, publicly available and focus on ensuring that the physical and behavioural needs of the pigs are well provided for.  Pigs are smart, social creatures and giving them the physical space and ability to express their natural behaviours is a key part of ensurin ..read more

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Humane Food Manager, Hope Bertram, to find out more about humane food.  The RSPCA believes you can eat meat, dairy or eggs and still care about the welfare of the animals that provide it. These animals are living, feeling creatures, capable of experiencing fear, pain and distress. The RSPCA believes all animals should be treated humanely, whether they’re animals we farm for food or live with as companions. Humane food is food that is animal-welfare friendly. Standards on animal-welfare friendly farms are higher than those in conventional systems a ..read more

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Humane Food Marketing Officer, Talulah Gaunt to find out more of what is to come on season 2 of the Humane Food podcast.   Some of our listeners may only know the RSPCA for the work we do to prevent cruelty to companion animals like cats and dogs. But the organisation has a long history of working to improve farm animal welfare. In fact the RSPCA in Australia was started in Victoria to improve the lives of working horses; and the national organisation of RSPCA Australia was also created to address farm animal welfare issues such as battery cages and ..read more

Brian Daly interviews Simon Bryant, former Executive Chef at Hilton Adelaide, and Festival Director of Tasting Australia.   Simon Bryant is probably most well known in Australia from his long running ABC TV series with Maggie Beer ‘the cook and the chef’. He is passionate about the welfare of animals after growing up on a hobby farm and this has led to his work advocating for the use of ethical ingredients. As a chef putting humane food on the menu, Simon has been involved in the RSPCA’s Choose Wisely initiative which is all about getting Australian’s to think about their food when they’r ..read more

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Chief Science and Strategy Officer Dr Bidda Jones and Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow.  In this episode, we delve into the RSPCA’s well-known and long-held opposition to live animal exports. For an organisation that supports farming and generally pushed to improve (rather than outright ban) poor practices – why is live export one of few exceptions?  Dr Bidda Jones has been with the RSPCA for more than 20 years, and back then, the first report she ever wrote for the RSPCA was on the horrors of live sheep export to the Middle East.   ..read more

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Farm Animal Scientific Officer Dr Sarah Babington and Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow.  In recent years there has been a decline in grocery sales of cage eggs, indicating that more Australian consumers are choosing cage-free eggs in the supermarket. But with overall egg consumption increasing, and eggs being used in various products, the total number of Australian hens confined to cages has not yet significantly dropped.   There are inherent animal welfare issues associated with the farming of hens in cages, and the RSPCA has been calli ..read more

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Scientific Officer Dr Sarah Babington and Senior Scientific Officer (Farm Animals) Melina Tensen, to find out more about farm animal transportation in Australia.   Farm animals are transported within Australia every day to other properties, saleyards, feedlots, abattoirs and export ports. Some of these journeys may involve distances of thousands of kilometres over several days. Transport is stressful for farm animals and can cause suffering and deaths.   The RSPCA believes that animals should be transported in a way that avoids injury and minim ..read more