Live exports must end immediatelyPUBLISHED: 27 Sep 2012 00:07:54 | UPDATED: 27 Sep 2012 00:07:54PUBLISHED: 27 Sep 2012 PRINT EDITION: 27 Sep 2012
I have been travelling around Australia and have been amazed by how many people are concerned about the plight of whales.
While this is understandable, it is astounding that in the meantime, millions of Australian sheep and cows are left to suffer in the Middle East with full government support.
Tens of thousands of sheep shipped from Australia to slaughter in the Middle East were recently left stranded aboard their vessels – struggling to survive in the suffocating heat – after being turned away by officials in Bahrain and Kuwait. One ship remained in the waters off Bahrain for almost two weeks following a journey which had already taken more than a month before the animals were offloaded in Pakistan, where the sheep are being “culled” (that’s a nice way of saying killed without stunning) because they have been found to have salmonella and actinomyces bacteria and now possibly even anthrax.
Then you have discarded farmed cows exported and dying in large numbers due to neglect. More than 30,000 Australian cattle are now being held in limbo in Egypt (half have been stranded for more than six weeks) due to a disagreement over the use of hormones.
If similar atrocities had happened to even one whale, the entire country would be outraged. Every year, millions of discarded sheep endure what can only be described as hell at sea. What else can you honestly call cramming terrified sheep onto open-decked ships for a gruelling journey across thousands of kilometres?
These are not the first cases in which sheep and cows have been nightmarishly stranded – and unless live exports end, they won’t be the last.
Perhaps the outcry isn’t as strong because Australians have become desensitised to this suffering since it happens so frequently.
Jason BakerDirector of Campaigns, PETA
The Australian Financial Review