How the government failed animals in live export

Suzanne Cass, from Live Export Shame Tasmania, says that the Gillard government continues to abjectly fail animals in the live export trade.

‘The Farmer Review, which proposed that OIE “recommendations” be implemented throughout his “supply chain assurances” in the live export trade, fails the animals before they even leave Australia’, said Ms Cass. ‘We have recently sent a series of complaints to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry about a number of issues affecting animals in this trade, and these animals are theoretically still under the protection of Australian state and territory animal welfare statutes’.

‘Article 7.2.8 (3) of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code states, in relation to the use of electric goads:-
“The use of such devices should be limited to battery-powered goads on the hindquarters of pigs and large ruminants, and never on sensitive areas such as the eyes, mouth, ears, anogenital region or belly. Such instruments should not be used on horses, sheep and goats of any age, or on calves or piglets”

‘As part of the proof that Farmer’s taxpayer funded review is worthless, we have sent a series of photographs, and links to film footage, taken at various ship loadings in Fremantle, of electric goads being used on the faces of sheep and on their ano-genital regions in direct contravention of the code’, said Ms Cass. ‘The goads are used on animals on the top decks of trucks, where they can be seen jumping to escape the pain, and are at risk of falling from, or jumping off the truck. This film footage clearly shows that the goads are used relentlessly and gratuitously on the confined and defenceless animals:

‘As well as breaching the OIE standards, exporters routinely breach their OWN industry standards, the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock (V2.3), Ms Cass continued. ‘Live Export Shame Tasmania has sent an additional complaint to DAFF in relation to sheep being transported to the port of Fremantle who are clearly suffering from a variety of serious eye conditions including pink-eye (keratconjunctivitis) and even apparent blindness’.

‘The ASEL (V2.3)is quite clear at page 27 that ‘sheep must not be prepared for export if they present with:-
• Blindness in one or both eyes
• Cancer eye
• Keratoconjunctivitis (pink eye)’

Keratoconjunctivitis is an extremely painful and highly contagious disease.

Ms Cass said that observers at Fremantle have sent photographs of a total of 103 instances of significant eye problems, and that was just in one day. According to the ASEL, these animals should never have been loaded for transport, and Live Export Shame Tasmania has requested a response from AQIS in both complaints about what action it intends to take against the exporters, and their veterinarians, transporters and stevedores for whose actions the exporter is vicariously liable. She claims that the protection of animals at the ports is almost entirely unmonitored, partly because RSPCAs in several jurisdiction have agreements with state and territory jurisdictions that they do not deal with farm animals. Moreover, prosecutions are rare because the system is outcome determinative rather than preventative, meaning there has to be proof that the animal has ‘suffered’ before any action is taken – by which time it is far too little, far too late.

In addition to these complaints, Live Export Shame Tasmania is also investigating whether exporters are breaching the ASEL by confining animals to AQIS accredited feedlots which have inadequate or no shade and protection from extreme weather conditions, particularly in Darwin. LES Tasmania is also working at investigating issues to do with loading animals onto ships that may already be contaminated in Australian ports and whether the feedlots are decontaminated before animals are taken to them. The information provided so far indicates that DAFF relies upon only declarations from the captains of these third world, flag of convenience ships that any cleaning has taken place, and that in order to ensure that there is no salmonella bacteria (a leading cause of shipboard mortalities) are present, every part of the ship must be thoroughly swabbed and tested.

‘It appears to us that sheep who may already be infected with, or latent, passive or active carriers of salmonella are loaded regardless, and that the tens of thousands who die on the ships from salmonellosis/enteritis complex are simply ‘collateral damage’, said Ms Cass. ‘And it should be noted that voyages as far as Turkey can take up to 41 days, and that the ships are sailing into pirate infested waters to Middle Eastern war zones’.

Download:
DAFF_complaint_Goads_and_OIE_recommendations3.docx
DAFF_complaint_keratoconjunctivitis.pdf
Letter_to_Farmer_re_DAFF_complaints.docx