Animal welfare

Despite international coverage showing cows stranded on newly-created ‘quake islands’, no official stock losses were reported – a handful anecdotally – and the famous cattle were safely moved.

Fonterra, MPI and the RSTs supported local efforts to get cows to milking where sheds were unusable or inaccessible due to farm track damage. Messages about once a day milking and milk dumping were distributed successfully.

MPI continues to take an active role in identifying and managing risks to animal welfare as knock-on effects in recovery; particularly those caused by the closure of major roads; restricting stock and feed movement.