A new coalition government has pledged to apologise to the Indonesians for the all-too-short 5 week suspension of live cattle exports two years ago following an expose of horrific torture and brutality to Australian cattle there. Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop, Warren Truss and Barnaby Joyce are strident in their support of an industry that has been shown, in almost all the countries to which Australia sends live animals, the most abhorrent and systemic cruelty. The others just haven’t been caught yet.
Through some curious preferencing arrangements, the Animal Justice Party helped to deliver a Senate seat in the ACT to the Liberal Party, allowing a Territory government issue – albeit a disgraceful one involving a kangaroo cull, to compromise everything we all thought the AJP stood for. Whether the preferencing arrangements arose out naiveté, a personal grudge within the Party hierarchy, or sheer political self interest, there is little doubt that they contributed to the result that brought the coalition to power. The party has lost all credibility with committed animal advocates with its ill-conceived election campaign, and lack of any effective communication and strategy. In the ACT, the AJP preferenced the Greens’ candidate Simon Sheikh last over the ACT government’s cull of about 1500 kangaroos, thereby abandoning all other species, including those animals doomed to the live export trade and in intensive farms in favour of one. Mr Sheikh, in the time he was with Getup, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Ban Live Export campaign following the Indonesian expose in 2011. And the Greens are the only party to have made any commitments at all to the welfare of Australian animals.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Western Australia, a disaster unfolds yet again as a ship loaded with 5,240 cattle bound for Israel, has been broken down off the coast of Western Australia for almost two weeks. The Pearl of Para broke down with propeller shaft coupling problems after departing on September 3.
StopTAC understands that this is a major repair, but the cattle remain on board, with the exporter claiming that this is better for their welfare. The facts of the matter are that they remain on board for the exporter’s welfare, since the costs and logistics of unloading, quarantining and re-loading them would be substantial. The voyage to Israel on the 19 year old apparently fully enclosed ship was to take three weeks, and even if the repairs were to be completed expeditiously, the Brahman cross cattle would be facing a voyage of more than 6 weeks on the ship. The ship is understood to be at anchor off Cockburn Sound and has not returned to the port of Fremantle, most likely to keep the state of the cattle away from prying eyes.
Given that the ship is close to the shore, it seems unlikely that any cleaning would be taking place, so the cattle are likely to be knee deep and covered in faeces and slurry, much like the ones in our earlier article following the release of the document by shipboard veterinarian Lynn Simpson. It is reported that the ship is filled at 90% of capacity.
In a further twist, the exporter, Alan Schmidt, revealed yesterday that the ship had also planned to divert to the Maldives to pick up security guards to deter pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden … because his daughter is on board as a junior stockperson. It is not known how long this diversion was to take. Schmidt, along with Alison Penfold from the Australian Livestock Exporters Council and DAFF all claim that the welfare of the cattle is not compromised, but obviously there is no-one independent to contest such claims.
Why has the Western Australian RSPCA not applied for a court order to board the ship with an independent veterinarian? This matters, to the 86% of decent, hardworking Australians who said, before the election in a survey, that their votes would go to candidates who expressed a commitment to end, or phase out, the live export trade.
The Pearl of Para was involved in another horrific incident just last year, when 400 pregnant heifers died of suffocation from ammonia fumes on a voyage from the USA to Russia when the ventilation failed.
The unfortunate cattle are headed for Israel, one of the ‘top’ cattle destinations for this trade. A complaint was filed with DAFF in respect of horrific cruelty to sheep and cattle in Israel as recently as June this year, involving two separate shipments. In September – October 2012 evidence shows Australian cattle being punched, kicked and beaten — with the worst cruelty inflicted on ‘downer’ animals who could no longer move or stand up. Evidence documented shows one lame bull poked with an electrified prodder over 100 times — in his face, eyes, ears, anus and genitals — the entire time bellowing in pain and distress as he made futile attempts to escape his tormentor. Painful electric prodders are used routinely in the Bakar Tnuva slaughterhouse to abuse animals.
Australian government audit reports indicate that Bakar Tnuva was audited in July 2012 — two months before this investigation — and was found to comply with the new Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System. In fact the only non-compliance picked up in the audit was a rusty gate, which has since been greased.
Bakar Tnuva passed its ESCAS audit despite the abattoir’s routine procedures and entrenched behaviour of workers demonstrating multiple breaches of OIE and ESCAS guidelines.
(Source: http://www.banliveexport.com/Israel )
And of course, it is not only Israel. Complaints filed with DAFF involve Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan, Mauritius (where cattle certified by a Broome veterinarian as not being pregnant or as having been spayed then began giving birth to calves on the ship), Vietnam, and Malaysia are the most recent of complaints spanning many years. Several more complaints have been filed about Indonesia as well, apparently showing a nation of slow learners and demonstrating Australia’s inclination to grovel to that country regardless. DAFF routinely dismisses the complaints using various technicalities available to it, and even when an offence is found proven, the worst penalty applied is that the exporter may have to give the animals more space, load extra antibiotics, employ an ‘Animal welfare officer’ or an ‘auditor. These people are employed and paid by the exporters. No licence suspension or even a fine, no matter how egregious the brutality or critical the violation. The disaster that was the Ocean Drover shipment to Bahrain, where the pitiful cargo of over 20,000 sheep ended up in Pakistan being beaten, stabbed and clubbed to death then buried alive was explained as being ‘beyond the control of the exporter’. ESCAS was said to have been implemented to ensure just that control, yet there was not even a fine imposed upon Wellards.
DAFF also has curious ways of deterring Freedom of Information requests. StopTAC’s last request, asking for the so far not released film footage and related documents from the Vietnam complaint of last August resulted in a demand for over $3,100 to progress the request. An earlier request involving the Bahrain/Pakistan incident, for which StopTAC paid a deposit, will take 18 months, because the exporter is consulted and can contest the disclosure, and the matter is then referred to the Office of the Information Commissioner – which is 18 months behind in its work. How many average workers would keep their jobs if they were 18 months behind in their work? So the information is by no means free, nor can it be obtained in anything approaching a timely manner. The information when received would be worse than useless, and that’s just how DAFF likes it. If we thought that this was poor under Labor, watch it get so much harder under the coalition government.
Meanwhile, the Party that was set up for the animals has conspicuously and comprehensively failed them, and we are left with a coalition government which intends to apologise to the Indonesians who so brutally tortured our cattle, re-open the trade to Bahrain that caused that horrific and brutal massacre of our sheep in Pakistan, potentially re-open the trade to Egypt and expand and promote the trade generally.
Live animal exports are worth just 0.3% of Australia’s exports, and, on a good day maybe supports possibly a genuine 3,000 jobs (not the 10,000 claimed by both Labor and the coalition). How is it possible that this noisy minority has such extraordinary power over Australian governments?
Suzanne Cass
Stop Tasmanian Animal Cruelty
PO Box 252
BRIDGEWATER TAS 7030
www.stoptac.org
www.liveexportshame.com
