Advocacy groups play a crucial and neglected role in revealing systemic animal mistreatment. We need to make their actions unnecessary by with better transparency in the industries.
A group of Nationals has won a fight to prevent the government appealing against a court judgment finding Labor’s 2011 suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia was unlawful.
The ban followed revelations of sheep suffering and dying from heat stress on voyages from Australia to the Middle East after a disturbing video was revealed.
AAP Image/ Trevor Collens
In choosing not to ban the live export trade even in the hottest northern months, the federal government is allowing animals to be put in conditions where they cannot possibly escape suffering.
Support is growing for a ban on live export, but what will replace it?
RICHARD MILNES/AAP
In the face of shocking footage of animals dying on ships, it seems impossible that our live export trade will remain as it is. Here are three areas to address.
A sheep undergoing live export in 2017.
Animals Australia
New South Wales’ ban on greyhound racing is a response to the high rate of animal deaths in the industry. But what about other states, and other animal industries, where the problem is prevalent too?
Cattle at export yards in Darwin, Australia.
AAP Image/Neda Vanovac
The latest horrific footage of the appalling treatment of cattle sent for slaughter in the live export trade is a fresh indictment of Australian authorities. Animals Australia has exposed that in Vietnam…
You don’t have to work in a paddock to have a valid opinion on animal welfare.
Carl Davies/CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
With animal welfare issues routinely handled by Senate committees with strong links to agriculture, how can we ensure that those outside the industry are being properly listened to?
Australia’s rules are meant to stop livestock being sold in roadside markets, but breaches are still being reported.
AAP Image/Animals Australia
After the 2011 live export crisis, Australia brought in rules designed to keep animals in accredited abattoirs. But with breaches widespread, there is little evidence that the rules are being policed.
Australian cattle wait to be loaded onto a ship to Indonesia. Their voyage to the United States would be even longer.
AAP Image/Xavier La Canna
Australia’s cattle industry is keen to begin live exports to the United States. But America is very different to existing live export markets such as Indonesia, making the move much more ethically fraught.
Cattle bound for live export in the Northern Territory.
AAP Image/Grenville Turne
The number of animals exported live out of Australia is set to increase as Australia prepares to enter into a A$1 billion trade agreement with China. Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has claimed up to…
After a tip-off from an Egyptian vet, Animals Australia sparked a government investigation into what an industry leader described as “horrific” slaughtering practices in Egypt last year. Tougher rules have now been promised.
Animals Australia
Australia looks set to resume exporting live sheep to Iran, after Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce this week flagged the end of a 40-year ban following Iran’s Islamic revolution. Flanked by the chief…
Indonesian cattle transport and slaughter practises are not acceptable by Australian standards of welfare.
Clive Phillips
Kevin Rudd advocated a return to a strong live cattle export trade between Australia and Indonesia at a business breakfast in Jakarta on Friday. Maybe he thought the Australian public wouldn’t notice…
Cruel slaughter of Australian animals in countries where abattoir workers face poor economic conditions can only be stopped with the long-term ban of live exports.
Flickr/Joe Shlabotnik
In Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree, Jo, one of the child adventurers, has a spell cast upon him that forces him to walk upside down on his hands in Topsy Turvy land. Jo survives the ordeal as most humans…
Protests against live exports of Australian animals.
AAP/Tim Watters
Although many Australians may feel like they heard the expression “live export” or “live animal exports” for the first time recently, the selling of sheep and cows to be slaughtered overseas has a long…
Phasing out live exports may be the only way to save Australia’s northern cattle industry.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Temporary bans on live cattle and sheep export have undermined confidence in the industry, driving property prices down and diminishing banks’ willingness to lend for long-term improvement. If the industry…
Our conduct has damaged relations with Indonesia and has serious implications for the environment.
AAP
Indonesia’s decision to cut live cattle imports from Australia is the clearest example yet of the significant and long-lasting damage that June’s export ban did to relations with our nearest neighbour…