Live exports

ANIMALS are still suffering and dying on live export ships and in foreign slaughterhouses. More than 200 million animals have been crammed on to filthy cargo ships over the last 30 years, and more than 2.5 million of them died on the journey, before the others had their throats slit in filthy markets abroad. Each one was an individual who experienced fear and pain.

Yet some stories this week are reporting the corporations that make huge profits from this vile trade, the ones that sued the government for putting a hold on exports of four short weeks in 2011. These corporations are now demanding ‘damages’ of more than a billion dollars from the Australian taxpayer, a sum likely to hit two billion with interest payments.

Those who watched the Four Corners exposé a dozen years ago will never forget the horrific scenes of Australian cattle being subjected to appalling brutality in Indonesian slaughterhouses. We saw animals pulled down with ropes or stuffed into “restraint boxes”, then killed with seemingly blunt knives while fully conscious.

One of the most telling scenes was of a steer named Tommy, who stood trembling in fear as he waited for the same fate he was watching other animals endure.

Regular exposés have shown continuing abuse, including the release of footage in 2018 on 60 Minutes showing sheep panting and heat-stricken, lying in piles of their own faeces and the decaying bodies of their flockmates. Yet the torture continues, despite overwhelming public demands that the business be halted.

The real victims of this inhumane industry are not the corporations but the cattle and sheep who continue to suffer and die. It’s well over time to ban live export for good.

Desmond Bellamy, PETA Australia