Thousands of animals perish in live export tragedy

By Deb Baxter - The Body Shop
It was devastating to hear the recent news that nearly 30,000 animals – 10,224 sheep and 17,932 cattle – were drowned when the Panamanian-flagged ship Danny F II sank off the coast of Lebanon. While the tragedy has taken an immense human toll, with more than half of the crew members missing, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and animal welfare organisations around the world have been highlighting the plight of the animals that have met this horrific death after having suffered a needless journey.

There have been numerous tragedies of this kind throughout the history of the live export trade. It is a harsh reminder of the perils of transporting thousands of animals across long distances – not to mention the often inhumane conditions on board such ships during these journeys. Previous WSPA investigations on the Danny F II and other similar cargo ships have shown how animals are packed tightly into the ship’s hold, with limited access to food and water, suffering great distress, injuries and dehydration before they arrive at slaughterhouses at their destination.

The live export industry claims that 99% of Australia’s exported animals arrive fit and healthy at their destinations and that we set a global benchmark for the rest of the world in terms of animal welfare. As the world’s largest exporter of animals for slaughter, Australia cannot continue to ignore the evidence that live exports are cruel.

We know that every year tens of thousands of sheep die on the journey from Australia to the Middle East alone. And for many of the sheep that survive the trip, a terrible fate awaits them in countries with no or unenforced animal welfare laws, where they are handled and slaughtered in ways that are neither legal nor tolerated within Australia.

As WSPA has repeatedly shown, the live export trade can be phased out and replaced with chilled and frozen meat products derived from animals humanely slaughtered at their point of origin. Apart from significantly improving the welfare of the animals concerned, this move to chilled meat products would also bring economic benefits to countries at both ends of the trade.
When will the Australian Government recognise the inherent risk and cruelty of the live export trade?