MPI defends actions in cow-beating case

The Ministry of Primary Industries is rejecting accusations that it is incompetent when it comes to animal welfare issues. Farmwatch, a farm monitoring group, has published footage of a sharemilker beating cows, at times with a metal pipe. The group says MPI should be stripped of its animal welfare responsibilities because it was told about the abuse, but nothing was done, and that this was not the only time MPI had failed to act. Gary Orr is MPI's manager of compliance investigations. He talks to Susie Ferguson.