Jenny Moxham
As published on
Geelong Advertiser
August 2011
Ed. Note: Read Live Animal Export for an extensive view of the horrors endured by sheep who are transported thousands of miles by ship to be slaughtered in the Middle East...after having lived horrific lives to produce "wool."
LAST Thursday was an extremely sad day for Australian farm animals.
Animals Australia video footage allegedly showing the mistreatment of live
sheep exports from Australia being inhumanely slaughtered in Turkey.
Despite repeated pleas by the RSPCA, Animals Australia and thousands of
concerned Australians, Julia Gillard refused to allow a conscience vote on
the bills calling for an an end to live export.
Consequently, it was unsurprising that the majority of politicians were
reluctant to go against their party’s policy and incur expulsion by
supporting the bills.
What this now means is that millions of Australian animals will continue to
be shipped half-way around the world and abandoned in countries where no
animal welfare laws exist and where they will have their throats slashed
while fully conscious.
It means millions of Australian animals will continue to be exported to
countries where they may have their eyes gouged or stabbed, their tendons
slashed, be trussed with wire, be crushed into car boots in 40-degree plus
temperatures and be tied to the roof racks of cars.
It means Australian cattle will continue to be sent to countries where the
method of killing entails deliberately tripping them so that they smash
their heads on the concrete floor before being tightly trussed and having
their throats sawn open. And all of this, after being subjected to a
gruelling and frightening sea voyage that many fail to survive.
Just this week, a ship containing 67,000 sheep, bound for Qatar, was forced
to return to Adelaide due to a mechanical fault. More than 200 of the sheep
which boarded the vessel only nine days earlier have already died.
One of Australia’s newest export markets is Turkey, with 215,000 sheep and
65,000 cattle sent there last year.
An investigation undertaken by Animals Australia a few weeks ago has
revealed that this country, like all other importing countries, likewise
subjects animals to horrific and unacceptable cruelty. The footage taken by
investigators showed terrified sheep and cattle being shackled by a rear leg
and hoisted into the air — thrashing all the while — before having their
throats slashed.
The failure of Australian politicians to vote against the live export trade
also means that our animals will continue to be barbarically sacrificed
during the Muslim Eid el Adhar — Festival of Sacrifice — which takes place
in early December each year.
During this festival, thousands of imported Australian animals are purchased
by individuals for private sacrifice. They are killed in homes or on
footpaths, often by inexperienced slaughterers, and the streets literally
run red with blood as they are gruesomely butchered in full view of one
another. Even those animals taken to abattoirs are not guaranteed a kinder
fate.
Lines of cars with animals in their boots may extend for two kilometres or
more. What terror these animals would endure, tightly trussed inside hot and
suffocating car boots. There can be no excuse ever for subjecting creatures
with the same capacity for suffering as ourselves to this unspeakable
cruelty.
Our Government has shamefully chosen to ignore their plight but caring
Australians cannot and will not. As Wilbur Wilberforce famously said: ‘‘You
may choose to look the other away but you can never again say you did not
know.’’
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
0 marine animals
0 chickens
0 ducks
0 pigs
0 rabbits
0 turkeys
0 geese
0 sheep
0 goats
0 cows / calves
0 rodents
0 pigeons/other birds
0 buffaloes
0 dogs
0 cats
0 horses
0 donkeys and mules
0 camels / camelids