|
|||||
The live Export industry is one of the cruellest forms of animal exploitation. Animals are crammed into transport trucks for days at a time with little or no water & food (reduces the messing of the truck) before being herded onto ships to spend weeks in poorly ventilated pens again with little clean water or food and forced to live in their own excrement - no animal voluntarily lives in its own excrement.
Many animals die in transport due to heat, stress, dehydration, starvation, injury & illness. The Industry dismisses this as a small percentage ie a statistical number - regardless, the deaths run into the hundreds of thousands per year - these are not "quick kills", but slow painful deaths that may take days or even weeks.
The Industry is all about how much more money it can squeeze out of the animal kingdom and cruelty can be excused because the industry is an important part of our economy. The Industry and government will use all manner of propaganda to justify the industry's existence, whilst doing virtually nothing about the cruelty inherent in it.
for more detailed information on this industry, visit live export shame
Read some of the Industry propaganda below the Prime Ministers interview.
| PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PRIME MINISTER JOHN HOWARD INTERVIEW
WITH JEREMY CORDEAUX, RADIO 5DN, REGARDING LIVE EXPORT TRADE
- August 2003
CORDEAUX: I don't know if you saw 60 Minutes not last Sunday but the Sunday before which dealt with the live animal export trade in Australia. I can't think of anything it has run as hot as that subject on this program, there's an awful lot of feeling about the need to ban such a cruel, cruel trade. Did you in fact see it, or did you get a report on it? PRIME MINISTER: Well, I saw parts of it, I was traveling at the time and I only saw a summary of it and some extracts from it. And I have had a report on it and your listeners may or not be aware of a statement that was made by the Minister for Agriculture, he's asked the quarantine inspection service, that's AQIS to investigate the allegations and he's aware of that program on 60 Minutes. He points out in his statement that the deaths have halved from 0.3 per cent of stock shipped in 1999 to 0.11 to date in 2003, but that investigation is continuing. I found the images understandably distressing as most viewers would have and if there are ways in addition to what is now being done to prevent that kind of thing occurring in the future, then I would want to see those measures introduced. CORDEAUX: And I think that's what you want to talk about, Cathy, is it? CALLER: Yes, Jeremy and good morning Prime Minister. Look I want to raise that issue. I saw the 60 Minutes program and to me they were scenes from many evil torture chambers and apparently the scenes they weren't allowed to see it because children would be watching animals getting their tendons cut to disable them and then their eyes were poked out with swords. I mean, that is absolutely frightful. You have [inaudible] I'm sure expect [inaudible] RSPCA and he is so adamant about this dreadful conditions once these poor animals even get to these places, it's bad enough on board this ship but when they get there it's just hell, and he wants you to ban the trade. PRIME MINISTER: Well that is a big thing. I understand the concern but people should bear in mind, of course, that it's a very valuable and important trade. It's worth about a billion dollars a year in export earnings and employs about 9,000 people, particularly valuable to farming in regional areas of Australia. So I deplore cruelty, any ordinary human being would and does. But we have to keep these things in perspective, we have to remember that you are talking about a very valuable economic asset and surely the goal is to make the trade as humane as possible isn't that the goal and that's the best thing to do rather than ban it... but you ban it you create a lot of disadvantage for many Australians who are already living in fairly disadvantaged circumstances. But your point, Cathy, about eliminating cruelty - I have to agree with that 100 per cent. CORDEAUX: I mean, even the unions would rather that the animals were slaughtered here and sent for processing..... PRIME MINISTER: We have humane conditions of slaughter and I mean, we have to be realistic about this, our methods of slaughter are more humane now than they have been in the past, but we have to understand the process that's involved in any abattoir and be realistic about it. CORDEAUX: Yeah, but at least have a look at it. PRIME MINISTER: I certainly have the same reaction to cruelty of animals appalls me and if there are ways that we can reduce that, and I will discuss this matter with Mr Truss and it will be raised in Cabinet amongst our under the line items which are those items that are not on a fixed agenda for discussion next week. CALLER: I'd like to raise two things very quickly if I could. First of all, the live export trade. You are more or less justifying it on the grounds that it brings in money. PRIME MINISTER: Can I just say I'm not justifying cruelty, but I'm defending the trade and I'm saying that it's not an answer to get rid of the trade altogether. The answer is to try and make it more humane. CALLER: Well it's been shown very clearly that it can't be done humanely. They've had 25 years to get their act together. Hugh Worth has clearly stated that what they're doing, the decline, if you or I did it to our dogs we would be jailed for it. So if you say it should be justified on the grounds of income, you're saying that provided I'm making plenty of money out of committing a crime, it's okay. That's virtually what you're saying. They've admitted it themselves, that their truck which is the newest, state-of-the-art, world-class transporter, 41 per cent of the cattle on board of it died and the [inaudible] that they were standing in was 31cm deep. That is the best they can do. And it's commonsense in any case to transport an animal humanely halfway across the world is going to cost almost as much to transport a human being halfway across the world humanely. And how much does that cost? A lot more than the value of their carcass. That's obvious. It's very plain that this trade cannot be conducted humanely, so if you condone it, you're condoning the commission of a crime on the grounds that they make a billion dollars a year. It's as simple as that John. PRIME MINISTER: Well no I don't think it is as simple as that. CALLER: I'm afraid it is. PRIME MINISTER: I don't accept that you can't make it more humane. I do accept that making it more humane is something that everybody should endeavour to do, but it's just not as easy as you suggest to dismiss the importance of an industry that provides a livelihood to tens of thousands... CALLER: [inaudible] provides a very good livelihood... PRIME MINISTER: No but it provides a living. I mean I am asked as Prime Minister every day to do things to help people who are not doing as well as other Australians and therefore I don't likely say I'm going to terminate an industry overnight that provides a livelihood and provides sustenance and provides support for many communities, particularly in country and regional Australia that have been badly affected by other conditions beyond their control. I think my obligation is to try and work to ensure that the concerns that were raised by that program and properly arise out of practices in the industry are addressed as much as we can. CORDEAUX: Marianne, thanks for the call. Comment - Because there is a large industry built around the live export of animals, the Prime Minister seems to excuse any cruelty involved as it's all for the benefit of the nation. From this it could be surmised that John Howard PM would also have been a supporter of the Slave Trade - there was a large industry built around that too - many Australians must of been financially disadvantaged when slavery was finally banned. |
| 06 03 Livestock Export Industry launches Animal Welfare Fund (46Kb)- huge smokescreen - 1 billion dollar plus industry launches fund with $150,000 (that's a pitiful .015%) and they would like animal welfare groups to contribute - Ha! Some more Meat Industry Propaganda - Industry Animal Welfare Scope (26Kb)& Exploding the Myths (227Kb large file - another load of ****) Please write to the Prime Minister & the Industry and let them know you are not blinded by their propaganda. Latest protest photos at Rendezvous Observation City protest and Rally through the streets of Perth |
