ORIGIN OF LWCC
Up until 1978 Dr. Levien was a sharp mimosa thorn in the side of the meat industry. He would give
photo’d evidence of cases of cruelty to the media and they were very happy to publish these photos and
revelations. Dr. Jan Lombard then the general manager of the meat board called Dr. Levien to his office
and said “This nonsense must stop” Dr. Levien agreed and said ‘Yes this nonsense must stop….but the
nonsense is the suffering and sometimes blatant cruelty to livestock which is taking place.
Dr. Levien and Dr. Lombard then decided to form a liaison committee involving all relevant parties
within the meat industry including animal welfare. That is how the Livestock Welfare Coordinating
committee came into being.
Instead of fighting each other, they would work together to expose and eliminate, as far as possible, the
avoidable suffering of slaughter animals. Over the years LAWA has implicitly been trusted by the meat
industry not to publicize any alleged malpractices as a fund raising strategy, but rather to negotiate and
advice in private in order to bring about change.
LAWA, being the founder member of the Livestock Welfare Coordinating Committee is still sharing
detailed and extensive recognition of its functions and activities within the total domain of the Livestock
agriculture industry.