Live export report futile | RSPCA
A senate inquiry into Australia’s live export trade has failed to address serious animal welfare problems and in doing so has ignored the concerns of the majority of Australians.
The report, handed down last night, states there should be ‘no compromise on animal welfare’ yet Senators have thrown their full support behind a trade that is inherently cruel.
The very practice of sending animals on long journeys overseas just to be slaughtered is a compromise in animal welfare in itself. The fact that 1% of cattle and 2% of sheep can die on the way before a government inquiry is launched shows that deaths and suffering of animals is considered an acceptable part of the daily business of live export.
The fact they are sent to places where laws do not protect them from cruelty shows Australia is all too willing to abandon our established principles as to how animals should be treated for the sake of money on offer in other countries.
The Senate report supported using OIE guidelines as a benchmark for the treatment of Australian animals overseas. This is in itself a compromise because it falls well short of Australian standards and doesn’t eliminate one of the cruellest aspects of this trade, un-stunned slaughter.
As the Australian Greens highlighted in their dissenting report:
“The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines establish minimum standards for developing countries. OIE guidelines allow practices which would be illegal in Australia to take place in foreign markets to those unlucky Australian animals which are subjected to live export.”
The Australian government has been forced to take unprecedented action in implementing new controls while live export continues. But as Independent Senator Nick Xenophon’s dissenting report stated:
“It is very concerning that it repeatedly requires media stories and public outcry (both this year and in the past) to expose bad practices overseas and bring about changes in the industry.”
That the ALP and Coalition remain wedded to this cruel trade defies logic, economic arguments and the wishes of the vast majority of Australians. But to continue to afford the trade unconditional support while in the next breath suggesting there should be no compromise on animal welfare is disingenuous at best.
Live export will always involve compromise. The trade will never be acceptable in animal welfare terms.
Both major parties will have a final opportunity to prove animal welfare is indeed important when new legislation to require stunning comes before the parliament next year. Whether or not Andrew Wilkie’s bill is supported will be a true test as to the extent to which our elected representatives are prepared to compromise on animal welfare in the live export trade.