It might surprise you that in June this year alone, almost four million cows, sheep and pigs were slaughtered in Australia for food according to ABS figures - a number dwarfed by the almost 50 million chickens this country kills ... a month.

While the majority of these benighted creatures were raised and slaughtered according to animal welfare regulations, the law of averages suggests that if even a few livestock or poultry producers cut corners or are simply indifferent to their charge's wellbeing, there are still millions of Australian animals suffering unnecessarily every year.

Barn-laid eggs are a relatively unpopular choice among shoppers. Credit:Simon Alekna

Investigations such as the Four Corners exposés of the live cattle trade and greyhound industries, as well as animal activist probes into poultry and pig production, have shown time and again that when you reduce a living creature to a commodity, concerns for its welfare run a distant second to profit.

This is why the current "biosecurity" legislation being debated in NSW Parliament is of such concern to animal rights groups, journalists like myself and plain old animal lovers - because it has the power to potentially criminalise investigations and activities that would seek to uncover these sorts of abuses on farms.