Just one week in the live export trade. Wilkie’s new push

Lamb with ‘scabby mouth’ – photo courtesy of www.liveexportshame.com

The 26 year old Al Shuwaikh

In just one week of the live export trade, three major incidents have occurred and been brought to the attention of the Australian community. Two ships loaded with sheep from Fremantle were refused entry to ports in the Middle East, the Al Shuwaikh in Kuwait and the Ocean Drover in Bahrain. It was alleged that the sheep were suffering from ‘scabby mouth’, a contagious pustular dermatitis or contagious ecthyma, which usually attacks damaged skin areas on the lips of sheep and goats.

It is the same disease which saw the hapless 55,000 sheep on the Cormo Express rejected in Saudi Arable in 2003.

More than 5,500 of those suffering sheep died as the ship drifted around the Persian Gulf for about three months, and the unfortunate survivors were finally abandoned to an unknown fate in Eritrea at massive expense to the Australian taxpayer.

The then Coalition government commissioned the Keniry review into the trade. As is the case with all reviews in this industry, the terms of reference never encompassed the ending or phasing out of the trade. It did, however, result in Memoranda of Understanding being implemented with many of the countries to which Australia exports live animals, including Bahrain and Kuwait. Whilst contributing absolutely nothing to the welfare of the animals, the MoUs DO provide for the animals to be unloaded from ships regardless of their health status.

So why did these ships, having sailed from the Australian winter to the Middle Eastern summer, have to drift around the Persian Gulf in searing 40+ degree temperatures? By then the sheep had been at sea for about 34 days already. The sheep from the Al Shuwaikh were eventually unloaded and placed in a feedlot in Kuwait, while the suffering sheep on the almost fully enclosed Ocean Drover were finally sent to Pakistan. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry would have us believe that these latter sheep were sent to a market that is compliant with the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme (ESCAS), yet a quick review of DAFF’s ESCAS web page indicates that Pakistan is not even mentioned as being complaint, nor intending to be. It cannot be expected that these sheep will be handled and slaughtered in accordance with any known standards of welfare, after their arduous journey of more than five weeks. Nor can we believe assurances from DAFF and the exporters that no more than 2% have died already, as former live export veterinarians have come out and openly stated that mortality statistics are routinely misrepresented to avoid investigations.

Last Thursday, the ABC’s Lateline program once again exposed the horrific treatment of animals in this trade, this time, sheep in Kuwait being tortured and brutalised in the notorious Al Rai market in Kuwait City, which is excluded from the ESCAS system – no doubt because of its brutality. Merino and Merino cross sheep, carrying Australian ear tags are clearly seen in the program.

In an interview with ABC Rural News on Friday, Animals Australia campaign director Lyn White says the system has failed.

“This is the scene of some of the worst cruelty that I’ve documented to Australian sheep over the past nine years,” she said.

“We were appalled to discover up to 200 sheep were being openly sold at this market, in breach of the new Australian regulations.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201209/s3585153.htm
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/livestock-cruelty-allegation-forces-exports-probe-20120906-25hca.html
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3584955.htm

Ms White also stated that one sheep appeared to have its throat cut no less than 24 times.

The exporters now under one of DAFF’s meaningless investigations are Wellard Rural Exports, which was responsible for the Ocean Drover debacle, and Emanuel Exports, which operates the Kuwaiti-flagged Al Shuwaikh.

Emanuel Exports south east Asian arm is International Livestock Exports, which was investigated in February after more footage of cattle being tortured in Indonesian slaughterhouses emerged yet again, and Emanuels is believed to be the exporter responsible for the sheep in this horror incident in Kuwait. Emanuel Exports, and its two directors Graham Daws and Michael Stanton were the defendants in the infamous Al Kuwait case, they have been the subject of countless mortality investigations with the old ships they use, and now they are embroiled in yet another scandal.

This, as always, calls into serious question the will and the ability of DAFF to monitor and enforce any of the legislation and regulation for which it has responsibility. DAFF did not even send an investigator to Indonesia in February when the second series of explosive footage of animal torture was released, and no penalty of any meaning was handed down to the exporters, International Livestock Exporters and the Northern Australia Cattle Company. Essentially, DAFF hands over the entire monitoring to exporter employed and paid organisations, along with the exporter employed and paid veterinarians and stockmen, so the entire trade is self-regulating, as it has been for decades. DAFF has an unassailable conflict of interest because it actively promotes live exports. How extreme do the breaches of the regulations – how appalling does the cruelty – have to be before there is a license suspension of cancellation?

DAFF and the Australian Livestock Exporters Council claim the ESCAS regulatory system is ‘working’, yet in every instance, violations have been identified not by the exporter employed and paid ‘auditors’ not by DAFF, the Department responsible, but by a small charity, Animals Australia.

Meanwhile, it’s just business as usual.

For a full background on these horrific events, please visit the forum at www.liveexportshame.com where you will find links to the full extent of the media coverage.

Stop Tasmanian Animal Cruelty
PO Box 252
BRIDGEWATER TAS 7030
www.animaljusticeparty.org
www.stoptac.org
www.liveexportshame.com

• Andrew Wilkie: Second chance to stop the cruelty:

The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has re-introduced a Private Member’s Bill to crackdown on animal cruelty and mandate the stunning of all Australian livestock slaughtered overseas.
“The discovery of more cruelty to Australian livestock, this time in Kuwait, makes a mockery of the Australian Government’s supposed efforts to clean up the industry,’’ Mr Wilkie said.

“The fact clearly remains that Australia’s live animal export safeguards remain ineffective and our livestock, in particular cattle and sheep, are still being routinely abused en route to and in overseas markets.’’

Mr Wilkie said the Federal Government only encouraged stunning, which left the door open for the cruellest aspect of the live export industry, un-stunned slaughter, to continue unchecked.

The Livestock Export (Animal Welfare Conditions) Bill 2012 introduced this morning would legislate Australian standards and mandatory stunning in foreign abattoirs that are granted permits to process Australian livestock.

The Private Member’s Bill is a replica of the one Mr Wilkie had before Parliament last year.

“It’s a sign of the Government and Opposition’s cruel disinterest in animal welfare that this Bill was allowed to drop off the notice paper,’’ Mr Wilkie said.

“But this issue will not quietly die because the sickening scenes of animal cruelty on Four Corners more than a year ago are still seared on the minds of millions of Australians who are demanding action.

“If we’re not going to stop the trade, at the very least we need to demand Australian standards be applied right along the supply chain.’’

Read Andrew Wilkie’s speech:

Mr WILKIE (Denison) (10:08): I will only speak briefly at this time, because the Livestock Export (Animal Welfare Conditions) Bill 2012 was originally tabled some months ago but, regrettably, not chosen in time by the Selection Committee and so it lapsed. I have decide to try and progress it again, in light of the fact that systemic cruelty in Australia’s live animal export industry has still not been addressed by the government, despite the severity of the continuing animal abuse and the calls by a great many Australians for something to finally be done about it.

At the end of May last year almost half a million Australians were glued to their televisions watching the Four Corners program expose the live export trade for its lack of regulation and its cruelty. Many more people were of course unable to watch, because they knew the images would be too disturbing—or they tried to watch, only to feel the need to turn off their sets. But all were unified by a sense of utter outrage that the system had gone unchecked and unchallenged for so long.

What was most startling about the footage taken by Animals Australia was the obvious fear in the animals themselves. I have mentioned many times already—and I will again today because it has so affected me—the young black bull watching on as his fellow cattle were brutalised and killed in front of him. Few will forget the fear in his eyes as he stood there shaking in the knowledge that he would be next.

My office received hundreds upon thousands of emails, phone calls and visits from people voicing their objection to this cruel trade. I thought, as I am sure many others did, that if ever there was going to be a catalyst for change it would be on the back of this groundswell of public support for reform. How wrong we all were, because the aftermath of the Four Corners program was met only by a temporary suspension of exports to certain slaughterhouses in Indonesia and a flurry of rhetoric from the government that ultimately led to nothing more than some fiddling around with the exporters’ supply chain, a system that is genuinely failing our animals. How deeply disappointed we were to learn that the government and the opposition hardly give a toss for animal welfare, or, they do, but they care much more about the profits of industry and their own political self-interest.

I wanted to phase out live animal exports once and for all. Together with Senator Nick Xenophon I proposed a three-year transition away from live exports and towards processing meat in Australian abattoirs. But this parliament did not support that proposal. I then proposed that the stunning of all livestock be made mandatory, but this parliament apparently does not support that proposal either.

The ALP, in particular, is seemingly satisfied with the encouragement of stunning but lacks the courage to ensure it is actually carried out.

I am not satisfied with temporary solutions and rhetoric with no outcome, so I am here today once again attempting to end the trauma that millions of Australian sheep, cattle and goats experience, by again trying to have introduced a requirement for the mandatory stunning of all Australian livestock shipped overseas for slaughter.

This is important, and the need for reform is urgent. Only in recent weeks, in scenes reminiscent of last years footage on Four Corners, ABC’s Lateline ran a story on the most recent Animals Australia investigation into sheep exports to Kuwait. Once again we saw unnecessary and barbaric treatment of Australian animals, once again we saw a bureaucratic apathy that allows the problem to continue and once again we relied on a small charity to act as the watchdog on a multimillion dollar industry. In this most recent episode we witnessed a large group of sheep being sold and slaughtered at the Al-Rai market in Kuwait City. The breed of the sheep indicates that they must have come from Australian sources, showing that the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System is no assurance at all. Terrified and injured sheep having their throats hacked at for minutes on end is an unacceptable consequence of leaks in the chain.

Bizarrely, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has responded by saying that these Animals Australia investigations are a pivotal part of a good governmental regulatory regime. While the work of Lyn White and her team at Animals Australia is obviously worthy of the highest recognition, to officially regard them as part of the solution is to as much as admit that the system is either flawed or broken. Truly, it is way beyond time for the government, with the support of the opposition, to stand up and take ownership of this issue, to do their job and to crack down on the unconscionable cruelty being inflicted on Australian livestock being sent overseas for slaughter.

In closing, can I just say thank God for Animals Australia. If it were not for people such as Lyn White and her colleagues, not to mention their colleagues in the RSPCA, so much animal abuse would remain undiscovered. But such organisations and such people cannot be expected to maintain a presence in all countries that receive Australian livestock, or to resource effective investigations from donations and from goodwill. These should be jobs for the government and we should be able to have confidence that they are jobs that are well done. But of course we do not.