RSPCA must not reinstate endorsement of farmed salmon

A letter to the RSPCA from NGO organisations right across Tasmania has a resoundingly-clear message: continued endorsement of industrially-farmed salmon with its appalling welfare practices will result in the RSPCA logo losing all meaning for consumers.

With 25 clear breaches of the RSPCA endorsement policy, and insider information that leases have been overstocked by more than 30%, the letter asserts that Huon Aquaculture's practices are intolerable. The corporate decisions in the lead-up to the current mass deaths do in fact reflect a company that is not holding animal welfare as a core value.

RLO (rickettsia-like organism) is a cruel and deadly disease. Fish exhibit anaemia, pale gills, skin and liver lesions, swollen kidneys and enlarged spleens, haemorrhaging over stomach, swim- bladder, visceral fat and body muscle, dead cell tissue of the intestine, and pathological changes in the brain, heart, and ovary. Antibiotic treatments used to combat piscirickettsiosis often fail despite the high doses given.

The high fish mortality rates, which researchers consider an indicator of severe neglect, point to the RSPCA-endorsed fish having extremely poor health and extreme suffering.

NOFF campaigner Jess Coughlan says "Shoppers rely on third-party endorsement to make ethical choices. They are clearly being misled by the RSPCA: Huon Aquaculture's salmon does not have a high standard of animal welfare. Overstocking, mass mortalities due to painful disease and suffocation from a lack of oxygen all equate to extreme cruelty."

The RSPCA brand will be trashed if Huon Aquaculture endorsement is restored."

• Comments attributed to Jess Coughlan, NOFF Campaigner, 0431684741. She will be available for comment on Parliament lawns 12.30pm today 18 March.