Poll on Australian Live Animal Export

[WA Export News]

Scooter- you are a real gem!

[Export News Tasmania]

Hi Rocky
Can you tell us please what you have seen in importing countries, once you have unloaded (and therefore are no longer responsible for) the pitiful "cargo"?

[jocy]

 I support this letter: " Australia should discontinue the Live Animal Export trade to other countries on ethical and compassionate grounds alone.
However, discontinuing the Live Animal Export trade would also benefit Australian abattoirs; many Australian abattoirs have 'Halal' certification and would welcome the chance to re-build the chilled carcass trade that has been decimated by the Live Animal Export trade. It would also restore many other rural jobs that have been lost; approximately twice as many jobs have disappeared from closed Australian abattoirs and associated business' as have supposedly been 'created' by the live export industry".

I also support : "We all know that the live exporting farmers had no worries about the disappearing local processing sector, or the jobs of meatworkers as long as they got a few extra dollars per head for animals. We know too that they are excellent at turning a blind eye to the shocking cruelty the animals they send face. Now, they have been caught by the drought, and there is insufficient processing capacity. What goes around comes around! Don't throw them any more handouts, because this proves that they cannot manage their businesses like everyone else has to."

I am against any live-animal-export and I condemn those, who are pro. 

[Export News Tasmania]

Jocy, thanks for that excellent letter, The Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union puts the figure of jobs lost as a result of the live export trade at 40,000. The industry claims it supports 13,0000 jobs - but it includes in that figure doctors, dentists, hospitality, banking and insurance workers (amongst others) whose jobs would clearly remain if the trade in live animals ceased. The real figure is probably more like 3,000. Please, send your letter to the relevant State and Federal politicians!

[borga]

As a vegan, I hate anything to do with the meat trade, skin trade etc,etc,....however, as this whole export issue is never going to go away,  I would rather see our livestock stay on Australian soil, be slaughtered in Australian slaughter-houses than endure the living hell they face as soon as board those ships of evil.  On the flipside, and I know I wont be popular for saying this, but, the jobs that have been lost by Australian meat workers, will most likely be picked up again. Once again, I would rather see our livestock be handled by Australians than face mutiliation and torment by those in other countries where animal cruelty laws are non existent.

[WA Export News]

Well said borga.

Part of the issue is that farmers demand to have a choice of markets to which they can sell the animals and make their money. Frankly, it is clear they dont give a toss about the suffering their animals endure and this makes it difficult to inject the concept of 'human decency' into the debate.

If farmers did care, they would refuse to send their animals on what can only be described as a nightmare journey.

[Magda]

Hey Rocky, Why don't you view film and video regarding the subject of live export and the abuse, torture and slow deaths  to animals in the flesh trading you obviously support? If you're only half brained you would see this shouldn't happen. I say you have an absence of reason.

[tankgirl]

As the daughter of a farmer, who no longer lives on the farm because it is just so damned hard to make a living these days, I am appalled that some of you think the farmers of Australia do not consider animal welfare or sustainability and only care about a quick dollar. Let me tell you..  there are no 'quick dollars' in the farming industry. I would like to make a number of points:

Farmers are driven by sustainability. Unlike many people who no nothing of the land, many farmers understand that in order to get the best from their animals, they must look after them. They must also look after their land.  Their future livelihood, and I mean livelihood, not profits, because many farmers live hand to mouth, depends on their stewardship of the land.

Farming is a highly regulated industry. There are rules about the chemicals, (if any) that they use, there are rules about how they must maintain the land, if and how they can clear trees to put in fences and dams, there are rules about how they truck cattle, there are rules about the protection of waterways. In Queensland the State Government has recently brought in more rules about the sustainability of farms, because they blame farmers for the deterioration of the Great Barrier Reef. There are many other regulations that I am not even aware of because I no longer work on my family's farm. Farmers are suffering from regulation fatigue and that is why many of them have given up speaking out, and you will not hear the voices of the majority of farmers on this issue. They are tired, and they are busy tending to their animals and their farms.

Farmers love their animals, if you didn't love them, you could never live that lifestyle.  Farming requires so much hard work and heartache. Animals require so much hard work to thrive and in times of drought, or flood, so much more work just to survive. Farmers don’t go home at 5:00pm, kick back and forget about it all. When you work on a farm, you live it, it’s your everything. Animals need food and water, they need inoculating for illnesses and diseases, treating for ticks and flies, when you are not doing that, you are repairing fences, equipment and yards, maintaining waterways, caring for the land, eradicating pest weeds, and feral animals. So don’t think that after all that hard work, farmers like seeing their animals treated badly.  Moreover, it is sickening for myself and many people I know from farms, to see animals treated badly, this includes, cows, sheep, dogs, cats, and our native animals.

Farmers have a limited market for their produce. Abattoirs in Australia were very nearly a monopoly industry before the live export trade started up. My family sold and still sells their cattle to our local abattoir, however the only other market available to them prior to the live export trade was the sale yards, where eventually they end up at an abattoir anyway. Many cattle that are sold to the live export trade are unsuitable for our fussy Australian palette. We don’t like eating the tough beef from northern Australia. And many cattle sold to the live export trade are smaller and lighter than the abattoirs’ will accept. The live export trade provides farmers with an additional market place where they can derive some income from. This is not to say we do not need to support our own abattoirs, however, without the live export trade, many farmers will be captive to the abattoirs once again and without any bargaining power. Without competition, our abattoirs will become a near monopoly industry again.

Many people eat meat. I see many of you dedicated vegetarians complaining about this, however, like it or not, meat is a source of protein for billions of people. Unfortunately, to eat meat, an animal must be slaughtered. It’s not like picking broccoli or lettuce, where you snap of leaves and you see no effects. It’s yukky, and its messy and its bloody, and can be very distressing for the slaughterer. There is nothing nice about killing something, no matter how humanely you do it. Personally, I think that you should know how your food gets on your plate, if you eat meat, of any sort, beef, pork, chicken, fish, you need to understand that an animal must die. Our society is very removed from the realities of where our food and consumables come from.

What we saw on the TV was very selective. In many cases, only a small percentage of cattle ARE treated like that, which is still wrong, but I have been told, by people in the industry, that we were only shown the horror.

Scooter, I would suggest to people like yourself, who are concerned for the welfare of the cattle, to stop reading Senate reports. We all know the Government is out of touch with the realities of the industry. If you really want to make a difference and if you are so passionate about the welfare of the animals, get yourself a job on a farm. Learn about the industry. Get yourself a job on a live export boat, teach others to treat our animals with the dignity they deserve. Go work in an abattoir both in Australia and in Indonesia. Find out how to slaughter our animals in a cruelty free manner. Stopping the live export trade is not the answer as it destroys economy’s, livelihoods, and will reduce many people and animals in both Australia and Indonesia to starvation. Getting people like yourself, who care about animal welfare, involved, is the answer.  If you are that passionate and you really care about our animals, instead of name calling and complaining, protesting and jumping up and down, become actively and constructively involved in the industry, become a farmer, or a meat worker, or get involved in the live export trade. Make a difference by being constructive.

[WA Export News]

Thanks for you views tankgirl.

In order to make claims believable one needs to substiante the claims. If you want to make statements such as "What we saw on the TV was very selective. In many cases, only a small percentage of cattle ARE treated like that, which is still wrong, but I have been told, by people in the industry, that we were only shown the horror.", then you should be able to substantiate it.

Were you at every slaughter?  No. You are simply regurgitating what the industry says. Havent they led all a merry dance about what really goes in in Indonesia? Why the hell would you believe what the industry had to say for goodness sake when they have not been totally up front.

And you suggest that all farmers care about their animals. So you are on every farm all of the time?

No didnt think so. Take a trip to a saleyard and see the animals so called 'caring farmers' send in for sale. Animals that cannot even stand up.


We appreciate your contribution but those involved within this industry have every reaponsibility and duty of care to ensure that NO animal endures what our Australian animals endured.
 

[born_for_freedom]

Hey tank girl. Most people work bloody hard in their job..so why should an animal farmer expect special attention?

Have a read of the words you use because they say a lot about how someone really feels. You say 'produce'. Since when is are live sentient beings 'produce'?

Since when are live sentient beings 'stock'. Stock is what goes onto the shelf at the supermarket.

I realise you think you understand animal welfare, but really one must be objective in order to understand good welfare and I do not for one minute believe you can be.

[Export News Tasmania]

It is sad indeed when farmers believe the propaganda touted by the live export trade. Seven investigations in the Middle East, and now this one in Indonesia, cannot all be wrong. The inherent problem is evidenced by your terminology, tankgirl - 'stock' and 'produce' are terms that should never be applied to animals, who feel hunger, thirst, fear, pain, and lonelieness. MLA's response is 'we need to do more training'. They only ever considered training at all because they were exposed for the liars they are about 'improving animal welfare' in these Godforsaken countries (you only have to consider what they do to their women, for God's sake). Many of us survive and live healthy lives without killing and exploiting these sentient creatures. And no-one cared when 40,000 meat workers lost THEIR livelihoods when you people got greedy and got into this evil trade three decades or more ago. And let's get this straight ... these embodiments of greed and animal abuse now want COMPENSATION from the taxpayers (as if we haven't propped them up for long enough) AND they want their animal abuse back? And we should trust you people that you could ever get it right? We think not.

[bulya]

Banning the live export has and will do nothing for animal and human welfare issues in Indonesia, all has done is created a animal and human welfare issues in Australia.
Why don't we ban all trade with China as they do not have the Australian work, Health and safety standards.
Ban trade with Japan they are hunting the whales again.

[WA Export News]

Bulya. You miss the point. The issue of live export is not about humans. It is about cruelty and suffering to Australian animals. And Australian animals suffer in the Middle East and in Indonesia.

It must be noted that the live export trade has destroyed over 40000 jobs within the slaughter industry here in AU.

Australia does not need live export.

[tankgirl]

It is dissapointing that you do not investigate this matter futher and are happy to accept the propaganda you saw on the television as the truth and the only truth and continue to regurgitate the misinformation.

No I cannot be at every kill, like many of you I have a full time job in the city. However, I have seen animals slaughtered because I believe if you eat meat, you must understand how it gets to your table. Many of you would have never seen a cow, a horse or a chicken, let alone seen how it gets to your table. This is part of the problem. 

Yes I believe the farmers, I've been one. No, not all are caring and respectful of their animals, but neither are all city people caring and respectful of their cats, and dogs.

To those of you offended by the words "stock" and "produce", here's a history lesson. Cattle have been domesticated for many thousands of years. And as heartless as this might sound to you they were domesticated so that people could eat them. And without protein from meat, we would not be human, our brains would not have developed to what we now have. We would still be in trees.

And as for the slaughter industry here If you want in Australia, the abbatoirs in Townsville cannot handle the meat they are processing, their chillers cannot cool it fast enough and their are massive backlogs of cattle booked in to be slaughtered, that they keep deferring.

And what are you doing about the animals stuck in yards, stuck on trucks, who were destined for live export but are now in limbo. Are you even aware of thier existence? Do you care for their welfare? What becomes of them now?

This link has some letters from real farmers, people who have been effected and who care about their animals - http://justgroundsonline.com/forum/topics/my-story-the-ripple-effect

[Export News Tasmania]

How many investigations, showing the same atrocities, do there need to be? Having spent years around saleyards watching ill, crippled and dying animals transported there, sold, and transported onwards regardless of their pain and suffering (and I have prosecuted them, in one instance for starving 35 sheep for 9 days), it is something of a leap to expect us to believe that farmers or indeed any of these animal 'industries' 'care' for their animals. Daily we see four deck transporters packed so tighly with animals you can clearly see that they are thrown on top of one another.
You only have to read one of the latest posts quoting a goat 'producer' (I thought animals themselves were the producers, but I guess that's semantic) who says he 'doesn't know'; how the animals he exports are killed. And for those who didn't know, that's the way they like it. The most culpable entity in this, Meat and Livestock Australia, will now have to provide for the animals saved from the Indonesian fate. And information from the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union directly contradicts your assertions.
You people claim to be 'in business'. Other businesses in this country have to operate within ethical and moral stanards and in compliance with a multiplicity of regulations and government policies and have to deal with changes in those policies. Why is it that farmers think they are different? They have their hands out when there's drought, and they have their hands out when it rains. And we taxpayers are continually bailing them out. Other businesses are left to fold, without constant government handouts. Enough. This trade has got away with far too much for FAR TOO LONG, now it will end. Deal with it. We manage to live healthy, productive lives without exploiting animals. We have some chickens who lived lives of hell on battery farms who are here for the rest of their lives. And my brain got me through two post-graduate degrees without meat.