Sheep Central reports that Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council chairman David Galvin has complained to Agriculture Minister David Littleproud because he considered “third party submissions by known opponents to our industry”.
Galvin is disappointed that the submissions were considered when the Department of Agriculture decided not to allow the industry to breach the winter moratorium preventing the shipment of sheep to the Middle East in June. Funnily enough...the government is elected by the Australian public and is answerable to the Australian public - it's called democracy not “third party” interference. VALE commends the Department for adhering to its moratorium despite industry pressure. In doing so, it has proved its willingness to objectively assess science, and animal welfare and to consider the ethical expectations of the Australian public.
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NSPCA posted the following overnight: "VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!
The NSPCA had applied to the High Court and the matter had been set down for 16 July 2020. However, after the Australian moratorium was upheld and the Al Messilah wasnt allowed to pick up the Al Kuwait sheep from Fremantle, KLTT headed off to South Africa. With the arrival of the ship there, the NSPCA applied for an urgent interdict. The NSPCA won their urgent High Court application with costs - the Al Messilah cannot load!. No sheep will be loaded onto any of Al Mawashi's sheep ships until the matter has been heard on 16 July 2020. NOTE: Al Mawashi is synonymous with KLTT. VALE strongly commends the Dept for upholding the science- and animal welfare- based Moratorium on shipments of sheep travelling to the Middle East in the northern summer months (see DAWE media release below).
This was a test case with a Covid outbreak delaying the departure of the Al Kuwait from Fremantle. There was strong pressure on the Govt by the public, advocacy groups and veterinary associations (including the AVA) to uphold science, voyage analysis and animal welfare. However, live ex is a powerful industry and the Govt had a bruising day yesterday with the Court ruling that a former Minister of Ag had acted with misfeasance in suspending the northern cattle trade to Indonesia in 2011 after A Bloody Business in a response to animal welfare abuse in Indonesia. The decision to uphold the moratorium is even more remarkable in that light. Media release Live export exemption not granted The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has made the decision to not grant Rural Export and Trading (WA) Pty Ltd an exemption to export livestock after 1 June. The livestock vessel Al Kuwait was unable to depart prior to June 1 as planned, following confirmed cases of COVID-19 among crew members. The exporter submitted an application to the department for exemption from the June 1 export deadline under the Australian Meat and Live‑stock Industry (Prohibition of Export of Sheep by Sea to Middle East—Northern Summer) Order 2020, including an Animal Welfare Management Plan. Following consideration of all relevant matters under the legislation, including animal welfare and trade implications, the department has taken the decision not to grant an exemption to the exporter. The livestock that was to be exported in this consignment remain at registered premises and the department is satisfied there are no welfare concerns. A detailed statement of reasons for this decision will be released later this week. Guess the "independent" regulator, the non-independent Dept of Ag is about to approve June shipment??
It's been 9 years since over 100,000 Australians signed a petition to end the live export of cattle to Indonesia after the airing of the ABC's Four Corners program “A Bloody Business.”
The program resulted in around 60,000 media articles spotlighting Australia's live export industry. Instead of a ban, the government's five-week suspension of the trade saw the establishment of ESCAS as a way forward to reduce the end-destination cruelty shown on the program. The live export trade was well aware before the Four Corners program that inhumane slaughter practices were routine in Indonesia. And the fact that representatives from Animals Australia, and Four Corners could easily gain entry into the abattoirs to get the footage indicated the Indonesians also felt there was nothing to hide. The farmers took the Govt to court over the 5 week trade suspension (nothing compared to what businesses have suffered in Covid!). The outcome will be announced tomorrow but if logic prevailed, they should have taken the government (not to mention MLA and the live exporters) to task for turning a blind eye to what was going on, not for suspending the trade once they were caught out. It's still a “bloody business”. Animals Australia recently provided footage of the slaughter of Australian cattle in the basement carpark of an Indonesian mosque in August 2019. The video showed tail pulling, hitting, kicking, ear pulling and leg roping. Three of 20 cattle involved suffered 7, 14 and 20 knife strikes before finally succumbing to death (ESCAS report 172). The reality is that these types of incidents aren't isolated, and they aren't limited to Indonesia. There have now been over 170 ESCAS non-compliance cases investigated by the government with Animals Australia still the major independent unpaid "auditor". ESCAS is never going to work well enough to provide acceptable animal welfare outcomes in countries with meagre, if any, animal welfare concerns. Consistent with their scientific analysis of sheep welfare in the live export trade during the northern summer months, the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) have now written to Mr Littleproud requesting that the moratorium across these months are upheld:
"consistent with the advice we have provided previously, we believe that the welfare risks to the animals are unacceptably high in June, and that no exemptions should be granted. It is critical that the Government upholds the regulations, to ensure that animal welfare standards during live export of sheep are in line with the expectations of the veterinary profession and the wider community". See letter here. The Dept of Ag's dual role as facilitator of trade and regulator of animal welfare has never been more clearly put to the test than now.
Its now too late for any ship to leave by Jun 1. Will the 56,000 sheep currently being held in feedlots after the COVID-19 outbreak on the Al Kuwait be processed here in Australia in keeping with the government moratorium? Or will the Dept prefer to expose the sheep to increased suffering and mortality to ensure that one export company and its workers in the Middle East benefit from the business of processing them rather than Australian workers? The decision will be a test of the government's priorities. It is also a test of the importance of the overwhelming public outcry that occurred with the release of whistleblower footage from the Awassi Express. The moratorium is in place because the public demanded that sheep should never again suffer and die like sheep in that footage, unable to escape the heat, unable to access water and bogged in faeces. The Minister for Agriculture has backed away from taking responsibility for the decision already deferring to an unnamed Independent Regulator (and who knows who that is....surely not the Dept?). Will the "independent regulator" put an “independent observer” on board if they do breach the moratorium? If not, the Australian public will have to rely on whistleblowers to police the industry - again. With WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan confirming that negotiations were under way to use the Awassi Express (oh Anna Marra), the ship is still not in port and Jun 1 is 2 days away. Still possible...just.
But why is local slaughter a "last resort"? Anything to keep the exporters happy as usual we assume. Covid looked like a lucky reprieve for the 56000 sheep headed to the ME on the AL Kuwait before the summer moratorium. BUT....guess which ship has just left Kwinana Anchorage heading for Freo.....the Anna Marra, aka Awassi Express.
Watch this space.... As DAWE is now considering granting an exemption so that the Al Kuwait can load sheep in June, it is timely to consider the ongoing debate over moratorium dates. Over the past few weeks, ALEC has attempted to discredit an editorial and scientific paper by Dr Clive Phillips on the heat stress suffered by sheep shipped from Australia to the Middle East by claiming his data is out of date.
The “current results” that ALEC instead cite as representative of the industry relate to a single voyage (n=1) in April this year ... on the Covid ship of the moment, Al Kuwait (the rebadged Ocean Shearer bought from Wellard). The ship didn't have an independent observer onboard, and it sailed during a month that carries a relatively low heat stress risk compared to the months that Phillips considered in his analysis of 14 voyages (n=14). The federal government itself gave Phillips temperature and mortality data from 14 voyages that occurred from May to December, between 2016 and 2018. And yes, it was before increased space allocation but no amount of space can save sheep on ships from suffering and dying when the temperatures are above their physiological coping limits (see shipboard veterinarian comment for Independent Observer Report 12: "The animals had plenty of space and ventilation was good; there was simply no relief from hot and humid conditions"). Heat stress is real. No amount of space will prevent it. There is nothing “outdated” about this fact, and there's no “cultural heritage” in the Middle East that makes it ethical to ignore it. |
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