This past weekend, hundreds of Australians turned out for rallies all around the country calling for a ban on live animal exports.
Although WSPA was not involved in an official capacity, I attended the Sydney rally on Saturday in Hyde Park. Along with representatives from various animal organisations, incoming Senator Lee Rhiannon spoke to the passionate crowd calling for an end to the cruel trade.
MP Kelvin Thomson spoke to a crowd at the Melbourne rally, saying ‘It’s time to move to domestic processing, that is the future of the meat industry’. You can view a clip of Kelvin’s speech and further coverage of rallies around the country here. Overall the huge level of attendance at rallies nationwide comes as no surprise to us, having commissioned a Galaxy opinion poll last year which showed almost 80% of Australians are against the trade, and that was before the Four Corners expose.
This high level of community support was also seen at the Sustainability Expo in Pakenham, Victoria where WSPA held a Humane Chain stall. A big thank you to our volunteers! Pictured below are sisters Emma, Caity, and Ashlea who were a huge help at our stall.
I've done a number of community stalls before, but this was the first time that every person who came up to our table was quite familiar with the issue of live animal exports. And nearly all were eager to sign a letter to Julia Gillard calling for a complete ban on the trade, from school children, to meat workers, to retirees, and even several farmers that I spoke to.
It seems clear that Australians from all over the country - in both cities and regional areas are willing to get out and about to help put an end to all live animal exports.
Sharon Troy, Programs Officer, WSPA Australia
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QLD Nationals Senator, Barnaby Joyce slammed the “outrageous” use of that community sentiment to attain the Greens’ “purpose”, to end the trade completely.
“It was a blatant case of complete policy over-reach to achieve your policy purpose; not to fix animal husbandry in Indonesia but to shut down that trade,” he said.
“That’s what they always wanted.
“If you want to test me on that, note how long they had the footage for?
“We know they definitely had it for two months, but understand they were in discussions on this from reports, from January.
“They were happy with the brutalisation of cattle to continue for so long until they had maximum media effect, then they came out weeping and gnashing teeth but they were completely complicit with allowing those practices to go on, to the point in time, until they got maximum bang for their media buck.
The Federal Opposition says it is evidence the live export ban is creating an animal welfare crisis.
Mr Botha runs about 25,000 head of cattle there and also owns a separate cattle feedlot nearby.
"We haven't got feed in the first instance," he said. "They are only on natural grass and there's not enough natural grass.
Mr Botha says with the Indonesian trade suspended indefinitely, he has decided to act. He plans to shoot 200 cows tomorrow and 3,000 over coming months.
Wellard Rural Exports marketing manager Scot Braithwaite, has told FarmOnline from Bali that traders are loading trucks with hundreds of cattle and transporting them from Surabaya to Medan for processing after supply of all Australian cattle to Indonesian plants was stopped by the Federal Government on Tuesday.
The distance from Surabaya near Bali to Medan on the island of Sumatra is some 3500 kilometres, which on Indonesian roads takes eight days to complete.
"And I can tell you that during that whole time the cattle don't get off that truck," he said. "This is just one case that I know of where the Australian Government's decision is having a huge negative impact on animal welfare in Indonesia," he said.
"I don't think they understand what they have done."
Mr Braithwaite, who has worked in the live cattle trade in Indonesia for 13 years, said he was shocked by the footage he saw on ABC Television's Four Corners a fortnight ago, but has accused the show's producers of extreme bias against the industry.
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