Something fishy about long distance transport
SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT LONG DISTANCE TRANSPORT
You don't often think about fish hitting the road to get from A to B but that's exactly the case for millions of juvenile trout and salmon every year in Australia.
The welfare of all animals in transit, from sheep to salmon, will be the subject of robust debate between industry, government, welfare groups and the academic community at tomorrow's annual RSPCA Australia Scientific Seminar.
This year's seminar - Animals in Transit: the journey ahead - has attracted an impressive line-up of speakers, including keynote speaker, Julia Wrathall, from RSPCA UK, who will discuss livestock transport throughout the European Union.
RSPCA Chief Scientist, Dr Bidda Jones, said while fish are on the agenda, the sheer number of animals involved and distances travelled made the livestock sector the primary focus of this year's seminar.
"In Australia it is estimated that more than 967 million farm animals are transported within Australia every year, with four to six million of these being exported live on journeys that can take up to several weeks," Dr Jones said.
"Transportation is an inherently stressful process for all animals, be they pigs, sheep, cows, goats, horses, farmed birds or fish. It's important that all welfare impacts are understood and properly managed.
"The Scientific Seminar provides an excellent forum for stakeholders in the transport process to be updated on recent developments as well as to identify opportunities for improvement and future research."
RSPCA Australia's involvement in the review of livestock land transport standards as well as the recent launch of a global coalition to end the cruel and unnecessary live export trade (Handle with Care), makes this year's Scientific Seminar a very timely and topical event.