Live cattle trade blocked
BY MARGARET SETTER
Prompt action by a newly formed alliance between Animal Liberation, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union has, for the moment, defeated plans by Elders Limited to open up the port of Newcastle to the live cattle trade.
The first shipment of 13,000 young steers was scheduled to arrive at the port on April 15. The shipment, destined for ports in the Middle East, was cancelled following protests by unionists and animal liberationists, who threatened to prevent the loading of the ship on animal welfare and industrial grounds.
At a meeting of the unions, Animal Liberation and other community groups on April 10, Animal Liberation president Mark Pearson showed a video which graphically depicts the cruelty to animals which occurs at all stages of loading, export and slaughter.
Pearson said he was "appalled" at Elders' attempt to sentence the steers to "a long sea voyage in cramped and dangerous conditions, afterwards to be slaughtered by methods considered brutal and barbaric in Australia".
The live animal trade violates the basic animal welfare tenet that animals should be slaughtered as close as possible to the place where they have been reared.
Unions argue that, to protect jobs, the animals should be slaughtered and prepared in Australia before export. They also criticise the conditions on board the transport ships. Most fly under flags of convenience and are worked by seafarers from Third World countries whose living conditions on board are not much better than those of the cattle.