Archives

Australia is set to resume the export of sheep and cattle to Iran after a 30-year ban. Hundreds of thousands of animals are already exported by boat to the Middle East each year, but the industry experienced a financial set back when exports to Indonesia were temporarily banned in 2011 after Australian TV aired graphic footage “showing brutal treatment of cattle in Indonesian abattoirs.” Regarding the resumption of exports to Iran, Australian lawmaker Andrew Wilkie said, “That is just appalling news. The fact is that the live-animal export trade is systemically cruel.” In 2011, thousands of people around the country marched against live animal exports.

According to the animal rights group Animals Australia, “Most animals who are exported live for slaughter have their throats cut while fully conscious. Millions have died at sea. Some 30 investigations have revealed that in destination countries, many animals endure routine abuse and brutal slaughter in places where laws do not protect them from cruelty.” For more information and to find out how you can help, please visit Ban Live Export.

Canberra, the capital of Australia, plans to kill 1,600 wild kangaroos in an effort to reduce overgrazing and minimize dangerous interactions between humans and kangaroos. Lawyers for Animal Liberation ACT, an Australian animal rights group, have persuaded a judge to delay the cull, saying “If the government wants to kill more than 1,600 healthy wild animals, we have to be clear that the science is impeccable before we let them do that.” The activists also point out that their babies will have to be killed, “And remember, those 1,600 deaths don’t take into account the joeys that have to be brutally dispatched by shooters after they’ve killed their mothers.”

Photo credit: Time Magazine

Is a wild animal “cull” ever acceptable? In cases of overpopulation? Starvation? Danger to humans? We don’t cull humans even though we are the most overpopulated species on the planet. Do alternatives to killing, such a birth control and making the environment less hospitable, always exist? As activists, should we formulate our opinions about culls on a case-by-case basis? I don’t know the answers. In this case, Animal Liberation ACT is convinced that the kangaroo cull is cruel and unnecessary, and they need funds to continue to pay for the legal costs to stop it.

Undercover investigations by animal rights activists in Australia have triggered the Australian pig industry to lobby for protections similar to “ag gag” laws in the U.S. that criminalize the taking of footage which has led to reform. In an interview on Australian TV, the head of Australia’s pork trade group, Andrew Spencer, answers pointed questions about what the industry has to hide. During the interview, Mr. Spencer acknowledges that the industry is phasing out gestation crates but will not attribute that change to the work of activists.

TV Interview with Head of Australian Pork Trade Association

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals. To protect the bottom line, the animal agriculture industry is taking more aggressive steps to keep the public in the dark about how the animals are treated — confinement, mutilation, deprivation, physical abuse. To learn more about “ag gag” laws in the United States, please visit Farm Sanctuary. And, if you haven’t already, adopt a plant-based diet.