By COURTNEY KEOGH
Imagine being dragged by your legs into a small room and your throat being cut over a drain while someone looks down on you and waits for you to bleed to death. Or imagine your eyes being gouged out and all your tendons slashed so you slump on the ground unable to move. Disturbingly, this is the way many Australian sheep, cattle and goats die to Australia’s live stock trade.
Australia sends around five million live animals overseas each year to be slaughtered. They are sent by truck and by boat, many of them becoming ill or injured during the journey and thousands dying of starvation or infections before they reach their destination. The ones that die at sea are considered the lucky ones. The ones that survive the journey are taken and slaughtered in the most horrific way.
RSPCA Australia hopes to stop Australia’s live animal exports. The CEO of RSPCA ACT, Michael Linke, says the treatment of the animals sent overseas needs to improve.
“It simply has to stop if we are to meet the basic principles of humane treatment of animals,” he said.
RSPCA Australia is a strong supporter of the Handle With Care campaign (HWC) aimed at educating the Australian public of the conditions Australian animals face when they reach their overseas destination. HWC is primarily concerned with ending the export of live animals for slaughter – especially sheep to the Middle East. The live sheep trade has developed in Australia simply because the returns from the exports outweigh the costs. While RSPCA Australia and HWC understand there are incentives for continuing exports (the creation of jobs etc), they strongly condemn the conditions the animals face once they are overseas.
Adding to the confusion are numerous myths that surround the industry, such as the reason behind Australia sending live animals is because importing countries demands them for religious purposes, the cessation of live exports will cost Australian jobs, as well as Australia continuing their live stock export scheme only so they have leverage over other countries and can influence them into introducing animal cruelty laws.
In tackling the first myth, religious purposes are no longer a justification. The only requirement is that the animals are slaughtered Halal and Australia already employs this technique. In 2007, Australia stopped exporting live stock to Egypt after an outcry from the public at the brutal treatment Australian cattle received there.
The vice president of RSPCA Australia, Sue Gage, believes exporting animals to be slaughtered in another country contradicts Australia’s animal cruelty prevention laws.
“The live export of animals for slaughter is unnecessary and can no longer be justified on religious grounds”, she said. As a result, Egypt just increased its imports of frozen and chilled meat, which drastically reduced animal suffering in the country, and boosted the Australian meat market.
This boost in the Australian meat market did not mean Australians lost jobs – it actually created more. If live animal exports ceased, increasing the exports of chilled and frozen meat would boost the economy and create more business for Australian abattoirs and meat-processing industries. The Australian meat industry creates about $6 billion a year, while live stock exports create just under $1 billion, according to an ACIL Tasman report. An increase in the meat industry means even more revenue and the ability to employ more Australian people and boost the Australian economy.
Australian animals are not protected by Australian laws once they reach their destination. Sadly, most countries in the Middle East do not employ any animal cruelty laws and Australia cannot enforce its standards on other countries.
Mr Linke believes Australia is helpless once the animals have left Australian borders.
“We can do nothing to prevent the fate which these animals face once they reach their destination,” he said. “I am not talking about presumptions of emotional responses. Tthese are the facts.” A report commissioned by RSPCA Australia in 2008 concluded that there is still a reason live animal exports continue but found that there would be no long term effects to Australian farmers or the economy at all, if live animal exports of Australian sheep to the Middle East were stopped. The ACIL Tasman report looked at the steps needed to phase out exports in Western Australia, which has the highest number of Australian animals being sent overseas. It advised a quota system which would help Australian farmers reduce the number of sheep being sent overseas without crippling their businesses. The report also details how farmers can sell their quotas to other farmers who are most affected to help ease any financial strain. Furthermore, due to seasonal conditions, most sheep farmers in Western Australia are already restructuring their farms and adjusting to certain conditions. The findings from the report can eventually be used to phase out live stock exports in all Australian States and Territories.
RSPCA Australia believes that the Australian Government needs to gather up all its ‘political courage’ and take the first step to end live stock exports.
“The Government should focus on increasing Australia’s meat processing and exporting capacity and put an end to the cruel live export trade,” Ms Gage said.
RSPCA Australia, the Handle With Care campaign and many other organisations are attempting to address animal cruelty in the Australian meat industry in a realistic sense. Protecting the economic value of the meat industry must be balanced alongside ensuring Australian animals do not suffer unnecessarily.
Visit www.handlewithcare.org.au for more information.
