Public consultation on Australia's livestock exports
Live sheep exports to the Middle East are going to be subject to public comment in order to set new standards for livestock exports to the northern hemisphere, informs Maritime Executive magazine.
Until now there are recommendations by Dr Michael McCarthy and several governmental opinions on that matter, but animal welfare associations, such as RSCPA Australia, consider those to be in direct conflict with the advice of the Australian Veterinary Association.
The current standards have not been updated since 2011. The review aims to address concerns that:
• The standards do not deliver acceptable animal welfare outcomes for exported livestock within a viable industry.
• The standards do not meet community expectations for the welfare of animals.
• The standards are not based on the best available scientific evidence.
The standards and this review use the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) definition of animal welfare, which means: how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear and distress. Good animal welfare requires disease prevention and appropriate veterinary treatment, shelter, management and nutrition, humane handling and humane slaughter or killing.
Australia has been in the centre of a scandal regarding the condition of transport of livestock and, last month, one of the companies in this area Emanuel Exports lost its export license.
Emanuel Exports director Nicholas Daws said the company will appeal the decision as a matter of priority.
Nevertheless, animal welfare activists request an overhaul of the entire system. "Live sheep exporters have a shameful history of flouting Australia's animal welfare standards, and decisive action to address this is long overdue. This was Australia's largest live sheep exporter, one that was repeatedly recognized as a leader by the industry. Emanuel represented what the live export industry thinks 'good animal welfare' looks like. The overcrowding we saw [..], the inability of sheep to lie down or access food and water will happen again if stocking density isn't substantially reduced all year round", commented RSPCA Australia Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow.
The standards are open for public comment until September 19. The Technical Advisory Committee expects to release a draft report for further consultation in late October.
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