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Government fails animals in Indonesia
It must have been like déjà vu for Australians as they once again watched animals being horrifically killed in Indonesian slaughterhouses on ABC’s Lateline program last night.
Footage showing major breaches to the Australian Government’s Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System has indicated that this system has failed to protect Australian animals, once again highlighting the inherent cruelty of the live export trade.
The footage shows what are believed to be Australian animals being tripped over and falling onto their sides in Mark I restraint boxes – a complete breach of the Government’s supply chain assurance system.
The RSPCA says that this exposé comes 24 hours before the deadline for tranche 1 countries (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Turkey) to conform to the new regulatory framework for live export.
“If it is the case that the framework has been breached in Indonesia, where so much attention has been focused and where all animals are individually traceable, what is the likelihood that standards will be upheld in other importing countries?” said Dr Bidda Jones, Chief Scientist, RSPCA Australia.
“From what we’ve seen from this Indonesian footage, the RSPCA has significant concerns that the supply chain assurance system will not protect exported animals from cruelty. “
RSPCA Australia has reviewed the footage that documented the restraint and slaughter of a number of cattle in three Indonesian abattoirs filmed in January 2012.
The RSPCA’s assessment of the footage found clear breaches of the supply chain checklists, including 46 separate breaches documented on eight animals being slaughtered using Australian designed Mark IV restraint boxes.
“What this new footage shows yet again, is that un-stunned slaughter is inherently cruel. The Government must immediately require stunning for all live exports.”
“Unless there is stunning, appropriate training and an inspector in these abattoirs in every night, the systems that are currently in place will still cause animal suffering.”
More Media coverage can be found below:
About Live Export
Every year millions of Australian animals are exported live for slaughter. Cattle, sheep and goats are sent all through the Middle East and South East Asia — to countries where animal welfare laws do not protect them. Tens of thousands of animals don't survive the sea journey and those that do, disembark into countries where they are transported, handled and then slaughtered in appalling ways. Most animals slaughtered overseas have their throats cut while they are fully conscious, leading to an incredibly painful and prolonged death.
Over the past seven years Animals Australia has conducted investigations in the Middle East into the treatment of exported Australian animals. The evidence from these investigations across seven different countries has consistently revealed the willingness of Australia's live export industry, and consecutive Federal Governments, to export live animals to the Middle East regardless of how cruelly they will be treated. Only last November, Animals Australia investigators once again documented horrendous abuse of Australian sheep in Kuwait. The footage, which aired on ABC1's 7.30 Report, outraged Australians, yet once again the Federal government maintained its support of this cruel trade.
Indonesia has been the main destination for Australian cattle with 4.6 million exported to this country over the past decade. Animal protection groups had hoped that the treatment of cattle in Indonesia would be better than that of sheep in the Middle East because of the greater level of Australian industry involvement. What we have discovered however, is that we couldn't have been more wrong. Evidence gathered in Indonesia reveals that the involvement of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and LiveCorp in Indonesia has actually contributed to and facilitated brutal treatment of Australian cattle.
The evidence gathered against Australia's live trade during the recent Indonesian investigation and in the Middle East in the eight years prior is damning. No amount of profit, no amount of excuses can justify Australia's continued involvement in live animal export — the associated cruelty inflicted on animals — and the message that we are sending to other nations as to what is acceptable treatment of animals.
When Australia's live trade was exposed as supplying cattle to Egypt in the full knowledge that it was routine practice for cattle to have their leg tendons slashed to disable them prior to slaughter — the Federal Government should have ended the trade then and there. This further evidence of Australian interests knowingly supplying animals to even worse abuse in Indonesia demands that the Federal Government acts now.
In a historic union — Australia's two peak animal welfare bodies RSPCA Australia and Animals Australia have joined forces to demand the Gillard Government immediately halt the live trade to Indonesia and then announce an end date for live animal export. If you care about animals then please add your voice and help us end this cruel trade once and for all.
For the second time in six years, an investigation by Animals Australia has exposed the brutal treatment of exported cattle and forced the Federal government to take action. Today’s announcement of the suspension of the live trade to Indonesia follows the 2006 suspension of the live trade to Egypt.
"From the first moment of viewing this footage, I knew that suspending the trade was the only appropriate response from the government”, said RSPCA Australia Chief Scientist Dr Bidda Jones.
“While we are relieved at this announcement, it should not be forgotten that some 100,000 Australian cattle currently in Indonesia will face the same brutal treatment. The government must immediately put inspectors in Indonesian slaughterhouses to provide these animals with at least some protection"
"If successive Australian governments had proper oversight of this industry, these cattle and the six million previously exported to Indonesia, would not have faced the horrors of Indonesian slaughterhouses.
"If the Prime Minister didn't realise it before, she now has irrefutable evidence that the live export industry cannot be trusted. Not even MLA's own constituents are accepting their claims that they didn't know what was occurring in Indonesia. This is an industry that has made misleading the government, public and farmers an art form and animals has suffered immeasurably as a result," said Lyn White, Animals Australia Campaign Director and cruelty investigator.
"For years, this industry supplied animals to Egypt knowing they would be brutalised and now they have been exposed as complicit in Indonesia by supplying animals to the most brutal treatment imaginable and facilitating that treatment through the installation of cruel restraint devices.
"Over the past week, Australians have voiced their overwhelming outrage and disapproval of the live trade and the government's failure to take urgent action. The only way the Gillard government will redeem itself in the eyes of the public will be to support legislation soon to be introduced into the Federal parliament to end live export. RSPCA Australia and Animals Australia will continue our national campaign calling for an end to all live exports. " said Ms White.