What a brainless idea to have a live ex trade to China using southern Australian cattle....yep....this doesnt help all those northern rangeland pastoralists.....cattle have to be from from Blue-Tongue free zone and HGP free etc.....all of which means southern cattle. One wonders where they are all going to come from.....perhaps Australians are expected to go vegetarian to support China's request for beef???
However, equally of concern is the fact that the deal requires that the veterinary supervision of all consignments is to be by a Chinese Government veterinarian, a veterinarian that is highly unlikely to have a degree eligible for registration in Australia (their basic vet degree is 3 years!). Why arent we insulted that Australian veterinarians are not considered good enough? There can only be two conclusions here: 1) Aussie vets are incompetent or 2) Aussie vets, at least in the live ex trade, cannot be trusted (corrupted?). Either way, to have Chinese veterinarians practising as veterinarians in this country on our animals is illegal.
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How stupid of VALE. Here we are, having shown multiple breaches of welfare law and export law, painstakingly dissecting out voyage reports and labouring over scientific peer-reviewed papers to get this trade stopped, when all we really needed to do was to support gay marriage. What a strategic mistake we have made!
Of course, one wonders what the US will think. Apparently, they are our next big live-ex market....or perhaps not....as apparently we have to adhere to the marriage laws of our trading partners for live ex to go ahead. The industry has acknowledged they a need social licence to operate. Well if so, they better start looking at what the public want. VALE commissioned an independent poll, surveying 1000 Australian respondents, both metropolitan and regional. 59% of Australians disapproved of live export. 83% believed that existing Australian animal welfare laws should apply to the live export trade. 72% of them believed there should be mandatory penalties when exporters break the law This is a very clear signal that the Australian public demand better welfare laws and protection with an agency that can enforce those laws, something that the ESCAS review shows does not currently happen. The poll also showed that 82% of the public, like VALE and the Australian Veterinary Association, believed there should be independent vets on every live export voyage ……and that included 76% of the people who approved of live export. Interestingly, there was no significant difference between town and country dwellers in their responses.
Oh and if you want to join in on a non-random poll....we seem to have started a trend. ASEL 2.6 Standard for land transport of livestock for export
S2.16 Livestock must be checked to ensure that they are evenly distributed and remain fit to travel: (b) within 30–60 minutes of commencement of the journey; (c) at least every 2–3 hours as road conditions warrant; VALE have tailed plenty of trucks (tedious, time consuming and expensive) and can vouch that this definitely does NOT happen routinely.....but again.....its only ASEL....not followed....not policed! ASEL Vessel Preparation and Loading 4.2 Required outcomes:
(1) Livestock are healthy, fit to travel and comply with importing country requirements. If the escaped steer shown on the Animals Australia website was really loaded and not rejected, then this is a clear breach of ASEL. But .....what does ASEL matter. Legislation is there to be broken and other escaped cattle have been swum in and been loaded....so there is a clear legal precedent...namely, that no-one is going to observe the law or prosecute its infringements. A study by Murdoch University on behavioural responses of sheep during short-term transport showed that sheep exhibit a range of behavioural expression in response to land transport which can be assessed by naive (untrained) observers. Previous studies have showed that behavioural differences reflected changes typically associated with stress.
Now, this study was only performed early in transport so conclusions cannot be drawn for long transport, sea transport etc. But what it does show, is that normal untrained people have the ability to accurately assess animal welfare. So all those silly "townies" who get distressed watching sheep trucks rolling into Fremantle Port with crushed sheep, legs hanging out everywhere, distorted awkward body positions may have a point after all....! What a surprise..... Reference Collins T. Behavioural responses of sheep during short term transport. Proceedings of the AVA Annual Conference, Perth 2014, pp21-24 Just for some relief from slaughter and ESCAS, worth pointing out the folllowing from the "Management of sheep during shipping and the role of vets" [Proceedings of Australian Sheep Veterinarians 2013]:
"Pink eye typically affects 5-15% of a consignment but sheep adapt well. Despite this, it is a welfare issue and it is difficult to implement practical treatment." One wonders exactly how "adapting well" to a "welfare issue" is judged.....think last time you had anything in your eye....hardly life threatening but very debilitating....and you werent standing in 0.3 square metres, breathing in ammonia, possibly in high wet bulb temperatures not to mention standing upright on a heaving ship. In his opinion piece in Beef Central, Dr Malcolm Caulfield explains why both the government and the industry should be looking to the beef industry and not to the live export industry.....$$ for Australia, welfare for animals, reputation of Aussie farmers.
A "must-read" for any intelligent Australian! "It was a crazy decision, probably the most short-sighted blunder in Australian foreign policy in recent memory".....Prime Minister Abbott on the Indonesian trade suspension.
Lets just think about that one Tony....Most of can come up with a few major foreign policy blunders in recent years.... spying on the Indonesians, for example, which threatened more than just the LE trade. However, its pretty hard to go past one of the most significant short-sighted foreign policy blunders Australia has ever made....the decision by Howard's Liberal Government to invade Iraq for the "weapons of mass destruction" that werent there....something that set Iraq up for a civil war and also for increased global terrorism under IS (all predicted prior to the invasion). This terrible blunder has had enormous consequences for those in our armed forces, Iraqi civilians, the whole of Syria and probably most of the world for decades to come. Bit more significant than a temporarily grumpy Indonesia and a few sad farmers dont you think? Is there some short-term memory loss here? A: when it is ESCAS!
So, ho hum, here we are, again, in another country (again), with yet more evidence that ESCAS doesnt work......and what do we do? We continue to work with ESCAS. And the public are expected to be satisfied with that? |
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