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Well it was predictable....an industry vet chosen for the review and a Minister who ignored the science to continue a trade that will cause suffering and death in thousands of sheep this Australian winter.
But what perhaps was not so predictable is that all vets, apart from those in industry, are in universal agreement and opposition to the sheep trade in May to October. Australian Veterinary Association (AVA): 4/4 of their recommendations ignored: "extremely disappointed" VALE: "window dressing", "recommendations completely ignore the science" Sentient: "Clearly the truth is too inconvenient to accept." and as for Dr Lynn Simpson, former shipboard veterinarian, well she has gone ballistic......."ignorant, defiant, stupid" All vets, apart from those who profit from the industry, are now on the same page. Veterinarians are one of the most trusted Australian professions....and the public look to us. Time politicians stopped ignoring us.....it will be to their peril.
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Well today was supposed to be it....the McCarthy Review and the Minister's plan....9am sharp. However, it didnt happen. Just bad luck if you were one of the stakeholders invited to the preannouncement “lockup”. At the last minute, the government went into disarray over the Minister’s verdict on live sheep export and went into "lockdown"...
VALE of course were not inconvenienced at all as we didnt get an invitation to be "locked up" for the McCarthy Premiere.... We will be waiting from our back row distant interstate seats tomorrow.....but we are not holding our breath. Check out The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/16/release-of-live-export-trade-report-bungled-amid-cabinet-debate?CMP=share_btn_link ALP have pledged to phase out the sheep trade. Lib backbenchers are starting to rally behind Sussan Leys private members bill to do the same. But Ag Minister David Littleproud yesterday is still hanging onto the old arguments about refrigeration in the ME....oh please!!
Time he looked at his the government's own analysis in the situation as recorded as far back as 2014 in an ABARES report: "in the Middle East ‘substitutability between Australian live sheep and sheep meat imports has increased in recent years, largely reflecting growth in incomes, urbanisation, refrigeration availability and popularity of western style supermarkets. This is underscored by the experience regarding Bahrain, which stopped importing Australian sheep in 2014, after which sheepmeat import from Australia increased over two-fold.." CHECK OUT VALE's FACT SHEET - we did our economic homework ...and have sent to Minister Littleproud. Farmers are now clinging onto the lifeline that sheep can be transported safely to the ME using Wellard's purpose built ships.
Sorry to disappoint you guys but there are just a couple of flaws in your lifeline: 1) being in a Wellard ship does not change the ambient temperature in the Middle East one iota ...and those ambient wet bulb temperatures (outside the ship and blown into the ship with fans) are higher that the heat stress threshold in sheep no matter what ship is being used 2) since 2013, Wellard has had very little experience in shipping sheep to the Middle East 3) Wellard has a track record of major mechanical breakdowns, with some resultant serious animal welfare problems and...then.... 4) the ultimate clincher: since 2013, Wellard’s average mortality rate for sheep is 1.36% for shipping sheep to the Middle East....ie nearly double the industry average for this same time period (420310 sheep, 5729 deaths = 1.36%). Backing Wellard hasnt proved very successful for any punters....just check the share price....! See: https://www.sheepcentral.com/wa-producer-says-humane-sheep-exports-are-possible-on-purpose-built-ships/ Hard to keep up with the blogs when live ex continues to dominate news.
On Sunday we had the SMH showing the uncut footage of the carnage on the Awassi Express....and the human suffering that this also entails (to the Third World sailors having to cart away the bodies...and pieces of bodies). On Monday, the leading maritime media (Maritime Executive) carried the AVA recommendations....and the WA Ag Minister had clearly read those recommendations (see SMH). And then on Tuesday, we hear that live ex is also forefront in Israeli news and politics also. See: https://www.timesofisrael.com/sixty-senior-rabbis-call-for-end-to-evil-crime-of-live-animal-shipments/ and https://maritime-executive.com/article/sixty-israeli-rabbis-call-for-end-to-live-shipments#gs.MJmOFEM Its time....its gotta go. END THE LIVE EX SHEEP TRADE In a move that would appear to preempt the McCarthy review, the AVA have released their own review into heat stress in the live ex trade.
The key finding is as follows: "Irrespective of stocking density, thermoregulatory physiology indicates that sheep on live export voyages to the Middle East during May to October will remain susceptible to heat stress and die due to the expected extreme climatic conditions during this time. Accordingly, voyages carrying live sheep to the Middle East during May to October cannot be recommended." For the full and detailed review: see AVA_Literature_Review_Live_Sheep_Export_May_2018.pdf VALE wishes to congratulate the AVA on both undertaking the analysis and making the appropriate scientific conclusions from such an analysis (something industry has always been reluctant to do). VALE members have been watching this trade for 40 years....and we have never heard an announcement from either party that signals a clear intent to stop the live sheep trade....but today Joel Fitzgibbon and the ALP took that step.
Unprecedented!!! VALE wishes to thank the ALP. Graham Daws from Emmanuel Exports appeared very magnanimous in providing an extra 17.5% of space for sheep on the Al Messilah.www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-01/live-export-boss-says-sheep-have-generous-amount-of-space/9710508 Lets just check stills from the ABC video footage and see what that generosity looks like....   VALE is not so sure the public will be congratulating you on your generosity Mr Daws.....3 weeks....like this....and room to lie down????
AA and RSPCA seem to be beating you on generosity: see the RSPCA media release...! Graham Daws, director of Emmanuel Exports claims that sheep have a generous amount of space .....and that no-one was to blame for the heat stress incident on the Awassi Express.
Well if that is so, it can only mean one thing....as VALE have claimed all along......that not even a generous amount of space would prevent a heat stress catastrophe. Wow, rare for an exporter to agree with VALE. |
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