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Australian Livestock trade
News and Views
29 October 2004: At the beginning of his second term as Australian Agriculture Minister, Warren Truss announces that he would like to see an end to the live export trade, then qualifies his statement by saying that in reality this will be a long time in the future. The Minister is quoted as follows: 'Many more markets around the world will accept the carcass trade but there will still always be some live animal trade. Obviously, if we were able to create the extra jobs in Australia that come through the carcass trade, well we'd be keen to do that, but the reality is that at this stage the Australian industry is a very large one. Most of our livestock are processed in Australia, but there are markets around the world who want live animals, and I see those markets as being in place for a considerable period of time.' Truss goes on to say that the he believes the practice of 'mulesing' will become obsolete in the next few years as alternatives are developed.
25 October 2004: As a follow-up to the Naturewatch and PACAT demonstrations in London and Perth in August to mark the first anniversary of the Cormo Express setting sail, Animals Australia co-ordinates a further demonstration in Fremantle to mark the anniversary of the voyage finally ending. The demonstration is attended by representatives of groups from around the world, including PETA (USA), SAFE (New Zealand) and CiWF (UK).
19 October 2004: US retail fashion chain Abercrombie & Fitch announces a ban on the use of Australian wool in its clothing until Australia outlaws the barbaric practice of 'mulesing' - cutting away flesh around sheep's hindquarters without anaesthetic in order to prevent flystrike - and ends live export. The move is in response to PETA's 'Woolisbaad' campaign.
9 October 2004: Federal elections are held in Australia and John Howard's Liberal Government is returned to power.
4 October 2004: After news of the open letter is circulated around the world, the Animal Rights Group of the Green Party of England and Wales send a message of support, which is also circulated around the world.
4 October 2004: PACAT's Maggie Mann is in England to join in Naturewatch's World Animal Day celebration. She is able to meet with animal welfarists from Naturewatch's partner organisations around the world to highlight the cruelties of the trade.
28 September 2004: A group of some 58 prominent figures, comprising lawyers, actors, television personalities, scientists, authors (including Nobel prize winner John Coetzee), Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, musicians (including Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns and classical pianist Roger Woodward) and many others send an open letter to the Australian Government asking for an end to the live export trade. The letter is also sent to opposition leader Mark Latham asking for his commitment to end the trade should his party come to power after the 9 October elections.
20 September 2004: Two South Australian Senate candidates (Ralph Hahnheuser and Benno Lang, both running for the Senate under the Ban Live Exports banner) begin a three-week hunger strike to highlight the cruelty of the live export trade.
| 18 September 2004: Australian protest group Animal Liberation NSW circulates images of a livestock carrier ship, Strait Shipping's Suilven, leaving Wellington, New Zealand, in appalling weather conditions. September 2004: John Howard tours Australia on his campaign trail and encounters protests against the live export trail wherever he goes. In both Sydney and Perth, he is trailed by protesters in sheep costume, while in the Sydney suburbs he is confronted by a man in a rat costume - a reference to Liberal Senator George Brandis allegedly calling Mr Howard a 'lying rodent'. |
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6 September 2004: The Australian Prime Minister John Howard announces that Federal Elections will be held on 9 October.
12 August 2004: The Australian live export industry organisation LiveCorp announces financial difficulties and a spokesman admits that it may only be able to run for three more months. This financial crisis is a direct result of the costs incurred by the Cormo Express disaster last year. LiveCorp has appealed to the Federal Government for a compulsory levy to meet costs, but with Parliament in recess their needs cannot be addressed as yet.
6 August 2004: 6 August marked the first anniversary of the Cormo Express leaving Fremantle with its cargo of 57,000 sheep. To mark this unhappy anniversary, simultaneous demonstrations were held outside the Western Australian Premier's office in Perth and outside the Australian High Commission building in London. Read the full story here.
4 August 2004: Following lobbying by Animals Australia and the Israeli animal welfare group Anonymous for Animal Rights, the Government of Israel announces that it will no longer accept Australian livestock via the Jordanian port of Aqaba. Henceforth livestock will have to be shipped directly to the Israeli port of Eilat. The move is in response to animal welfarists' complaints that animals had been having to stay on board ship for up to six days in Aqaba port, then remain on trucks without food or water while security checks at the border between the two countries were carried out.
25 July 2004: New live export legislation comes into place in Australia, based on the Government's response to the Keniry Report. Export licensing is now the responsibility of the Government, which in theory means stricter controls. A qualified vet will now be on board every ship carrying animals from Australia to the Middle East. While hopefully this will mean an end to practices such as sick, but still alive, animals being thrown into waste disposal units at sea, it will be impossible for a vet to monitor the health of up to 140,000 animals packed tightly into pens, with no way of reaching those at the centre. Animal welfarists agree that the only answer is for the live export trade to be replaced by a chilled/frozen meat trade.
June 2004: Animals Australia is contacted by an investigative journalist from television current affairs programme Four Corners. The programme is examining apparent connections between the Australian RSPCA and intensive farming and live export commercial interests, after being contacted by a concerned RSPCA Council member. The programme is broadcast on 21 June. (You can read the full transcript here.) As a result, Animals Australia removes its complaint from the RSPCA and lodges it instead with the office of Western Australia's Director General of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, which is empowered to instigate proceedings and has the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that the Animal Welfare Act is enforced. Further details can be found here. Various Australian media pick up on the story.
April–August 2004: The Western Australian Museum in Fremantle runs an exhibition entitled 'Activism: Animal Welfare in Fremantle'. The exhibition focuses on the history of the live export trade and the work of PACAT. Tourists and locals alike are shocked by the photographs on display.
April–June 2004: PACAT continues monitoring shipments of live sheep out of Fremantle, and reports numerous incidents in contravention of the Western Australian Animal Welfare Act to the RSPCA.
1 April 2004: The official closing date for Naturewatch Australian live export petitions - over 50,000 signatures have been received.
29 March 2004: 60 Minutes abandons its online vote on the subject 'Should live exports be banned?' after voting is sabotaged by interested parties in the live export industry. A spokeswoman for 60 Minutes comments that before the sabotage attempt, voting was very much in favour of a ban.
28 March 2004: A further programme in Australia's 60 Minutes documentary series is devoted to live exports, this time focusing on the treatment of animals as they are unloaded and slaughtered in Kuwait. The film includes footage taken by Animals Australia, which is also published in full at http://www.animalsaustralia.org
24 March 2004: Animals Australia lodges its complaint that the Western Australian Animal Welfare Act 2002 was breached by a shipment of sheep from Fremantle (originally reported to the police in December 2003) with the RSPCA. This is due to the WA Police's policy decision that the RSPCA is the more appropriate body to investigate. The decision causes some surprise since, if successfully prosecuted, it would effectively mean the end of the live sheep export industry in Western Australia. One would think that such a potentially historic event would surely be of interest to the police, and that they would be best equipped in terms of resources and experience to investigate. Despite the Australian RSPCA's national policy and a public stance opposing live animal export, no progress is made with the investigation.
3 March 2004: The foot and mouth outbreak in Israel comes to an end, and the ban on export of livestock from Australia to Israel is lifted. A consignment of animals is shipped out of Fremantle.
6 February 2004: In response to a letter sent by Naturewatch, a reply is received from the Australian High Commission in London. The wording is identical to Warren Truss's reply to the letter sent by Naturewatch in October at the request of Animals Australia. It becomes clear that the Australian Government has adopted a standard response to letters and is failing to address the issues.
February 2004: An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Israel results in suspension of imports of sheep and cattle from Australia. A stalemate ensues when Israel insists that all animals are vaccinated against FMD. Australia refuses on the grounds that this would compromise its disease-free status. (FMD has not occurred in Australia for over 130 years.) Israel is Australia's fifth largest market. It last temporarily banned Australian livestock in August 2001 when 180 sheep died from heat stress and dehydration on arrival.
Australia continues to suffer from drought and excessive heat. At least 500 cattle die in feedlots from heat stress and dehydration.
January 2004: Naturewatch sends out campaign material to supporters. The findings of the Keniry Report are published – the inquiry reveals serious breaches of existing regulations and recommends tighter controls, but continues to support the live export trade.
December 2003: Investigators from Animals Australia and Compassion in World Farming film the unloading of the Al Kuwait in Kuwait. The film shows blind, injured and dying sheep being unloaded. Animals Australia make a complaint to the Fremantle Police that Australia’s Animal Welfare Act is being breached, using film evidence to back their claims.
September to November 2003: Teams from the German animal welfare group Animals' Angels investigate cattle exports from Australia to the Philippines. They discover ships that are overcrowded, with inadequate ventilation, food and water. Two ships in particular, the MV Dealco and the MV Janet 1, are particularly poor, and Animals' Angels recommend that they should be banned from carrying livestock.
10 October 2003: The Australian Government announces a review of the livestock export industry, called the Keniry Report after the chairman Dr John Keniry.
2 October 2003: Animals Australia presents a batch of letters from welfare organisations around the world, including Naturewatch, to Agriculture Minister Warren Truss at a meeting in Perth, while supporters hold a silent protest vigil outside.
21 September 2003: A follow-up documentary to ‘Making a Killing’, entitled ‘Ship of Shame’, is broadcast in Australia. Viewers are horrified when an ex-shipboard stockman tells how animals are disposed of at sea by throwing them into a giant mincing machine, sometimes still alive, and how if a sheep dies in the centre of a pen it has to remain there in the middle of the other animals until the end of the voyage as it is impossible to reach. The stockman says that the Cormo sheep, by this time, are probably standing nine to twelve inches deep in their own faeces. Also on the programme is Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss, who neatly manages to evade the questions put to him. Again the programme provokes a public outcry, with newspapers, magazines and radio stations all picking up on the story.
20 August 2003: The Cormo Express cargo is stranded in the Gulf. The animals’ unfolding fate is watched by people around the world.
27 July 2003: Australia is shocked by the contents of a documentary entitled ‘Making a Killing’ about the live export trade. Viewers hear the testimony of an Australian ship’s vet who was forced to falsify records following a ventilation failure and put the death total at 105, rather than the true figure of around 2,000, because the ship’s captain threatened him by withholding his passport and ticket home. The same programme features a German vet working in Egypt who explains how the dockworkers, unused to the large Australian cattle, surround the animals, cut their tendons and stab their eyes to incapacitate them. The broadcasting TV station and the Australian animal welfare groups are inundated with calls and letters.
Spring 2003: Naturewatch and Compassion in World Farming offer joint support to PACAT (People Against Cruelty in Animal Transport) in campaigning against the cruelties of Australia’s live export trade.
