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Live Export - Australia's Export Shame?
Sheep that manage to survive and aren’t slaughtered in Australia are shipped off overseas. Over 7 million sheep are exported per year to the Middle-East. This trade is supported by the wool industry as "an important component of the wool and sheep industry."
Up to 150,000 sheep are packed tightly together and allowed an area just large enough for themselves. This area is so small that they cannot turn around or lie down together, or even reach their feed troughs. The sheep are forced to stand and lay in their own waste for up to a month. The unhygienic conditions combined with fear and stress, make the sheep susceptible to diseases, sea-sickness, extreme temperatures, and injuries. The younger ones, or those that are too sick to defend themselves, are often trampled to death or suffocated.
 Many sheep are sick or injured from the land journey to the port, and combined with intensive overcrowding, stress, disease and strange food, a significant number die on their way overseas. Death on the ship is around 10% or 1500 sheep , and for every one that dies, many more become sick or injured. Sheep that are seen as not making it to foreign land are often thrown overboard with the dead ones, with many drowning or being eaten alive by sharks.
Go here for a review of the Australian Live Export
Once at their overseas destination, the surviving sheep are ritually slaughtered known as Halal. Muslim law does not require a sharpened knife between kills. The sheep are not stunned prior to slaughter and most have their throats sawed open by dull knives.
According to one witness in the Sitra abattoir in Bahrain, men would begin slaughtering as soon as a pen was full. The sheep would "wave their heads in obvious confusion, trying to stand up and call out as the blood gushed from their throats." ( www.prijateli-zivotinja.hr )
Just like the millions of sheep destined for overseas market and cruelty, thousands of cattle are also exported. And just like sheep, many cattle are prone to sickness, dehydration, starvation and crippling while on the cattle ship. Undercover investigations by Animals Australia found that Australian bred cattle were treated cruelly, especially in Egypt. Actions such as slicing the back tendons of cattle and blinding them by stabbing knives into their eyes, were commonly carried out in the effort to get the frightened animals into the slaughter rooms. Furthermore, the slaughtering involved holding and twisting the neck while a dull knife was used to slice the artery in the throat. Both the Australian Government and the Industries involved in the rearing and transportation of cattle refuse to do anything to help their Australian animals.
What Can You Do?
Become vegetarian or vegan. By not eating mutton and lamb you are not helping to support the Sheep Industry and the Live Export. Also by becoming vegan, and not wearing wool or using wool products, you are not supporting the industries.
Check out the ACT page for ideas on how you can help put an end to this horrendous trade.
Animal Rights Websites:
www.liveexportshame.com -A great site full of information about both the cattle and sheep live export
www.stopliveexports.org.- Another site exposing the facts and cruelty about the live export.
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