Yet again last week Australians were shocked by appalling footage of the brutal and painful slaughter of Australian sheep in an illegal Kuwait market.
It followed an incident where 22,000 sheep were stranded offshore in Bahrain for over a week, in sweltering summer conditions, after a harrowing 33 day voyage. Possibly 1,000 or more sheep died on the trip.
But with animal exporters responsible for monitoring their own compliance with regulations, these incidents are likely to continue.
We need your voice to help end the cruelty.
Image courtesy of Animals Australia
The Greens believe an immediate ban on the live export of animals for slaughter in overseas markets is the only way to ensure animals are not subjected to this kind of terrible suffering.
The new live animal export regulations have failed. Until a ban on live exports is introduced it is critical that the government properly investigates every breach of these regulations.
The latest serious breach in Bahrain was exposed not by Department of Agriculture checks, but by Animals Australia, and only after a series of misleading cover-ups by the Agriculture Department to protect the industry.
Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig must initiate an independent, full and transparent investigation of both the events in Kuwait and Bahrain.
That’s why in Parliament this week I called for an independent investigation to establish the Department’s role in the Bahrain incident and to ensure that the mortality figures associated with these two shipments are accurate.
Yours sincerely,
Lee Rhiannon
P.S. Thank you to everyone who supported our ban live exports postcard campaign urging the Minister to support the Greens’ bill to ban live exports. We have distributed over 10,000 postcards to our supporters, and will be delivering them to the Minister as they are returned.
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