The Auckland Island Pigs and Biotechnology Project

Mayor Tim Shadbolt announced today that local businessman, Mr Louis Crimp, is prepared to invest up to $200,000 in The Auckland Island Pigs Project.

His first substantial initiative will be the hiring of the shipping company Great South Shipping Ltd to move 50 pigs to Invercargill.

This is estimated to cost $50,000.

The Mayor expressed his gratitude for Mr Crimp who was an Invercargill City Councillor from 1998-2001, which was when the first herd of pigs were transported from The Auckland Islands.

Mr Shadbolt stated that Mr Crimp had been a diligent Councillor and a great benefactor for many charitable organisations such as; Hospice and the YMCA, and more recently he has offered $2 million to the new stadium which is being rebuilt in the city due to last year’s snow storm.

Recently Otsuka (a Japanese pharmaceutical company) invested A$25 million in The Auckland Island Pigs Project and this will insure that a treatment for diabetes will be commercialised.