URGENT DEVASTATING NEWS-AUSTRALIA RESUMES LIVE EXPORTS TO EGYPT
October 9, 2006
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Howard and the Australian People about Live Animal Exports to Egypt
Your Trade is Their TortureThe Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt (SPARE) condemns the Australian government’s decision to resume live animal exports to Egypt. We are shocked that Australians would again send their animals to Egypt, especially to Cairo’s Bassatin slaughterhouse, where animals are subjected to brutal and violent treatment. Egypt does not yet have a modern and comprehensive animal protection law or any enforcement mechanisms in place for the grossly outdated law that does exist. Thousands of animals are daily subjected to terrible acts of cruelty in Egypt. Prime Minister Howard, we had looked to Australia to provide an example that would inspire change in our country. Instead, you have endorsed cruelty. We appeal to Australian farmers not to send your animals to Egypt.
SPARE is the largest Egyptian animal welfare organization. We have been carefully monitoring the conditions in the slaughterhouses in Cairo and have observed that the Egyptian government simply is unable to control slaughter processes. Especially in Bassatin, the largest Cairo slaughterhouse, the slaughterers operate in a culture of such violence that even the veterinarians inside the slaughterhouse are too frightened to intervene in the slaughtermen’s practices.
The barbaric treatment of animals in Bassatin abattoir that the Australian television program 60 Minutes aired in February is still occurring. We are therefore appalled that this terrible facility is one of three approved abattoirs by the Australian government for the slaughter of Australian animals. Our extensive research shows that the problems at Bassatin or other Egyptian slaughterhouses cannot be solved by a new piece of equipment or a training course. Even if Australian animals are treated differently at Bassatin, in other slaughterhalls at this huge abattoir other animals will still be subjected to brutal treatment. Surely this should prohibit Australia from financially supporting this facility.
Your government is reassuring the Australian community that on recommencing the trade with Egypt the welfare of Australian animals will be overseen by the Egyptian General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS). There is no evidence to suggest that GOVS is able, or can be relied upon, to enforce standards in the slaughterhouses in Egypt. Australians should also be aware that GOVS is the body responsible for placing strychnine-laced food on the streets in Cairo to kill stray dogs and cats in the cruelest way imaginable. The use of strychnine for population control is condemned in the international veterinary community and is considered unacceptable under any situation. SPARE constantly calls upon GOVS to stop this practice and SPARE offers to undertake humane population control instead to no avail—GOVS representatives promise to stop the poisoning in an attempt to call off our campaigns against the practice, and then the next day they start the poisoning again.
Australia has many slaughterhouses certified as Islamic (halal) that operate under Australian standards and laws. Egyptians will accept the importation of your frozen or chilled meat, just as they have recently accepted imported frozen chicken.
Until effective Egyptian animal protection laws exist, laws which could have been encouraged by Australia’s continued refusal to send live animals to Egypt, your animals, whether cattle or sheep, will not be protected in Egypt. We are now depending on Australians to refuse to send your animals here. Please, do not put your animals on a ship and then look away. You may think it is merely trade, but it is the animals’ torture.
SPARE Board Members:
Amina Sarwat Abaza
Mona Khalil
Kristen Stilt
http://www.sparealife.org/
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