Protester's gathered in Australia to request a livestock export ban
Almost 500 people are protesting in Adelaide against the live animal export to the Middle East during the hot summer months in the area. Animale welfare organizations such as RSPCA, Animals Australia, and Adelaide Against Live Export are asking for an immediate ban on livestock exports as they consider that the local farmers should move from live animal exports into the chilled meat trade.
"The cruelty and the suffering of these animals on the sheep shipments simply cannot be avoided", said RSPCA SA animal welfare advocate Rebekah Eyers. On the other side, sheep producers are contesting the utility of the ban considering that such a measure could hurt rural communities from Southern and Western Australia. "Having a diversity of markets allows us to have some different options to ensure that we don't flood one market or the other and ensure we can get good and stable returns for all producers", explained Joe Keynes, Livestock SA president.
A "No" to the ban came also from Australian Meat Industry Council, even if the chairman, Lachie Hart, believes that with financial support from the Government the processing facilities in the country could increase their capacities. Nevertheless, Hart does not believe in a total ban of live exports. "It has to be a coordinated approach [...]. We actually see live export as a critical trade to the industry, it creates further competition to the industry. Any opportunity where we have a competing environment for their livestock is good for the producer and good for the Australian economy. If the Government is prepared to support the manufacturing industry in Australia, support us in training our labour, to get labour into our plants, we certainly have the capacity and the ability to handle the live export trade volumes", declared the AMIC chairman.
The data gathered by the council shows that the demand for chilled, airfreighted meat is increasing, while Australia' s livestock exports represent only 5% of the national sheep population. 250,000 carcasses were airfreighted to the Middle East in 2006 but that number had jumped to 2.6 million by 2016, shows the AMIC statistics.
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