The primary reason for rangeland cattle farming in the Kimberley (WA) is live export. The recent verdict on the cruelty case against Nico Botha from Moola Bulla Station illustrates how the law protects cattle farmers in northern WA, allowing procedures on live export cattle that would be regarded as 'unacceptable cruelty' elsewhere in Australia.
Let no-one be in any doubt: for many live export cattle, the cruelty starts at home in Australia. VALE commends the whistleblower for his actions that resulted in this court case
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Australian voters dont want live export. Every poll since May 2011 has found that. Likewise VALE commissioned an independent poll in 2015 that found nothing had changed. Arguments for live export "ring hollow" but neither main party will represent the Australian people on this issue.
Maybe this will be the election that ignoring the Australian people on this issue will come at a price....for pollies, not our animals. Wellard shares were hammered this week as the company announced a serious profit downgrade (8.4% on its prospectus forecast). A $10000 investment in the company’s float would now be worth little more than $6000.
Why the profit downgrade? A few reasons but they include having engine failures on two ships. Yep the shareholders (and sponsor brokers Deutsche, UBS and Morgans) are now facing some of same risks as the animals from which they profit. As Keniry (2004) said, it's an inherently risky business. Ref: The West Australian 2nd March 2016 After Alison Penfold (CEO of Australian Live Exporters Council) submitted her promotional piece to the global maritime new site Splash 24/7, VALE were also invited to comment (thanks Splash 24/7).
VALE pointed out some fundamental flaws in Penfold's piece including the misinformation that a veterinarian always monitors the animals onboard. VALE also supplied photographs that more accurately represent the onboard situation for cattle and noted that the industry always use photos of sleek, standing Bos indicus cattle for their promotional material. The Keniry Report (2004) commented that the live animal export was "uniquely and inherently risky".
And it is...political disputes and standoffs, extreme climatic conditions including heat stress events, wild seas, mechanical failure, disease ....and now, piracy. Whilst the threat of piracy has been relatively low the last couple of years, live export ships were frequently exposed to the risk between 2005 and 2012. Then there was some relief.....but the threat is now back again. So just add piracy to that list of inherent and unique risks. Matt Journeaux's insightful opinion piece in Beef Central definitely puts the economic case for local processing over live export. Yes, he works in the meat industry so by definition will have a conflict of interest. But....its a no brainer that LE is hurting local jobs and local economy and that the repercussions of unabated LE, especially with cattle numbers at such a low, are not going to be good for anyone. Producers need to remember that chasing that short-term dollar could hurt them severely in the long-run. History has and will repeat itself in live export.
And ...oh yes, then there are the animal welfare issues which have been present since LE began. Now South Australia being hit hard it seems....and no longer just Teys with JBS Australia also job cutting at South Australian abattoirs....
How long will it take for the LE trade to bleed abattoirs dry? Is it too far back to remember that the ultimate collapse of the northern abattoirs was due to live export....and when the northern live export trade itself collapsed in 2011....there was nowhere to go. The Australian domestic and export meat market are worth way more to the Australian economy than LE (in 2014, live export was worth $734 million and meat export was worth $9.4 billion). Are politicians, federal and state, really going to sit back and watch LE trash the economy? So, here we have it. The industry really cares about its animals. So much so that it will truck them to Fremantle Port, load them on a ship prone to mechanical failure, let them sit for 12 days in (and a bit out of) port often in very high temperatures whilst said failures are addressed, take them out to sea to get everything looking nice for a RSPCA visit (or the VALE visit that didnt happen!), then unload them (risking Australian biosecurity), truck them back to the feedlot then after a month, load them back onto trucks (at least one of which was loaded appallingly as witnessed by VALE at Fremantle Port on Saturday 13th Feb), take them back to Fremantle Port to be reloaded on another boat.....to go long haul to the Middle East.
Yep, no doubt about it, animal welfare is a real priority for this industry. Apparently the LE trade supports about 10000 jobs...at least according to industry sources....
Well, Teys abattoir, in its Wagga abattoir alone employs 800 and supports another 3000 in the area. Whats more, this one plant contributes $512 million annually to the regional economy ie it contributes about half of the whole LE industry income. And it is now being directly impacted by the live export trade. What are we doing in this country? In addition to inflicting suffering on millions of Australian animals, this trade is now hurting Australian jobs and the Australian economy. If only for economic reasons, this trade must come under the spotlight and the Productivity Commission must investigate. The old argument that the live exporters sourced cattle whose breed, age or weight were generally unsuited to profitable processing in Australia can finally be put to bed. Live exporters are sourcing cattle in direct competition to processors and, for the extra return of a few cent per kilo to the farmer, jobs are lost and animals are exposed to all the inherent welfare risks in oversea shipping and slaughter. It's time for the government to take some leadership on this issue for sound economic and ethical reasons but with Barnaby in control no-one should be holding their breath.
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