WSPA and The Body Shop join forces to create chain reaction

Australia-wide Humane Chain calls for an end to live sheep exports


The Body Shop and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) are joining forces this month to campaign for an end to Australia’s inhumane live sheep export trade.


From Monday 15 March, WSPA’s Humane Chain will be coming to The Body Shop. Customers will be able to add their own paper link to help create a huge red paper chain of support for an end to live exports.


Australia is the world’s largest exporter of live sheep, sending around 4 million to the Middle East each year. During the journey, these sheep suffer from heat stress and diseases such as scabby mouth, pink eye and salmonellosis. Some simply starve because they do not recognise unfamiliar pellets as food when they have been used to roaming and grazing freely.


The Body Shop is aiming for 40,000 Australians to join the Humane Chain at its stores from 15 March for four weeks – roughly one person for every sheep that dies en route to the Middle East every year.

For many of the sheep that survive the journey, a terrible fate awaits them in the hands of countries with no or unenforced animal welfare laws. Here it is common for them to be handled and slaughtered in ways that would neither be legal nor tolerated within Australia.

Emily Reeves, WSPA Programs Manager comments: ‘With the support of 40,000 Body Shop staff and customers the Government will hear loud and clear that Australians will not stand for this cruelty. It is time the Rudd Government started listening to the Australian public and responding to community expectations that our animals are treated humanely.’

In addition to animal welfare concerns, the live export trade is crippling the Australian meat processing industry, due to intense competition for livestock. But independent research demonstrates that phasing out the live export trade is possible, safeguarding jobs in vulnerable rural Australian communities as well as ensuring the welfare of Australian animals.


Mark Kindness, Chief Executive of The Body Shop Australia adds: ‘This cruelty is unnecessary and there is a viable alternative. The Body Shop has a history campaigning for animal rights and is proud to join Australians in a chain of support for the end of this torturous practice.’

The Humane Chain will be in Body Shop stores from 15 March to 11 April 2010.

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