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http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/sheep-killing-branded-cruel/2007/08/02/1185648061374.html

Sheep killing branded cruel

August 3, 2007 

State Government will investigate whether a Warrnambool abattoir's religious slaughter of sheep breaches the state's animal cruelty laws.

Export abattoir Midfield Meats conducts slaughters for Middle Eastern markets by cutting the throats of sheep and allowing them to bleed to death while still conscious.

A special arrangement with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service allows it to do this. The arrangement is believed to be longstanding.

Under the Australian standard for religious slaughters - both halal and kosher - the animal must be stunned by electric shock immediately before or after the throat is cut. This makes the animal unconscious.

However, there is scope for special arrangements for slaughter without stunning to be made.

The RSPCA has recently received a complaint about Midfield's practice. It describes ritual slaughter without any form of electrical stunning as barbaric and wants it stopped.

Midfield Meats is believed to be the only export abattoir regulated by AQIS to have a special arrangement to conduct ritual slaughter without stunning.

However, Primesafe, the state regulatory body for domestic abattoirs, confirmed there were three domestic abattoirs in Victoria that had similar special arrangements to kill without prior stunning.

The State Government's investigation comes as Midfield is seeking to expand the practice to cater for a large Israeli lamb contract. Midfield Meats managing director Colin McKenna declined to speak to The Age.

Victorian Minister for Agriculture Joe Helper said a Department of Primary Industries investigation would determine whether the abattoir's practices breached the state's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

"The minister will ask his department to do what is necessary to assess these claims and recommend action by the relevant authority," the minister's spokeswoman said.

More humane variations of halal and kosher slaughter occur at other Australian abattoirs, where animals are rendered unconscious by electric stunning immediately before the throat is slit for halal meat, or immediately after for kosher meat.

However, some Middle Eastern markets will not accept meat as halal or kosher if any form of stunning is used.

The RSPCA yesterday said that AQIS had given it repeated assurances since 1989 that no religious ritual slaughter without stunning was being conducted anywhere in Australia.

"We were lied to and told although the federal minister had the power to make special arrangements, it had never been done," RSPCA president Hugh Wirth said.

"If this is now revealed as the truth, what else is going on and where?"

Dr Wirth said export dollars from the Middle East could not justify the inhumane slaughter of animals in Australia.

"If this is allowed, we will have a two-tiered system in Australia where it is OK to slaughter inhumanely for the Israeli and Middle East trade but Australians have got to have their animals killed humanely and that's ridiculous," he said.

It could take "considerable time" for a slaughtered animal to lose consciousness, when the blood supply to the brain ended, Dr Wirth said.

The federal Minister for Agriculture, Peter McGauran, said in a statement: "I am aware there has been some interest in supplying lamb to Israel and this would require ritual slaughter known as kosher slaughter. However, I am no aware of a formal application having been made."

His spokesman later confirmed that halal slaughter without stunning was taking place at Midfield Meats.

Dr Wirth said it was unacceptable to allow religion to override local animal cruelty laws.

What is halal and kosher slaughter?

The traditional method of ritual slaughter under the Jewish and Muslim religions requires that animals are killed by a single cut to the throat while conscious and then bleed to death. The dietary rules of these religions require that the animals are not injured before slaughter and therefore cannot be electrically stunned unconscious. It takes the animals from 14 seconds to a couple of minutes to die.

The Australian variation

Under the Australian standard for ritual slaughter, animals are killed for halal meat by having their throats slit after being electrically stunned unconscious. For kosher meat, the animal's throat is cut and then it is made unconscious. However, some export markets regard the stunning process as unacceptable. Ritual slaughter without stunning has been taking place in Australia under special arrangements with regulatory authorities.

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Report renews calls to outlaw live cattle export August 3, 2007

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/report-renews-calls-to-outlaw-live-cattle-export/2007/08/02/1185648061386.html



ANIMAL rights groups have renewed calls for an end to Australia's $1 billion livestock export industry after a Federal Government report revealed that heat stress, leg wounds, and pneumonia led to the death of 247 Australian cattle on a ship to Israel last year.

The report, obtained by Animals Australia through freedom-of-information laws, details the cramped, dirty and humid conditions endured by almost 8000 cattle on the MV Maysora during the three-week voyage, which set off in October.

It showed that 61 cattle died on the way to Israel, while 179 died in the three days the ship remained in port before it was cleared to unload on November 5. Seven died the next day.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service review concluded that most of the cattle died from septicaemia, or blood poisoning, caused by leg infections. The veterinarian on board described the floors as "sloppy".

It was estimated at least 23 per cent died from pneumonia and "shipping fever", an acute form of pneumonia generally induced by stress, especially transport.

Animals Australia executive director Glenys Oogjes said the number of deaths was about three times the level required to trigger a Government investigation. She said to continue live export trade would be "unethical and indefensible".

"The industry likes to suggest that its trade is world's best practice," Ms Oogjes said. "If world's best practice can bring about such suffering and death on this shipment, but also others each year, obviously it needs to end."

The industry yesterday defended its record, describing the shipment as an unfortunate but rare incident.

Last year 99.82 per cent of cattle loaded in Australia arrived at their destination alive, according to its annual mortality report.

Meat and Livestock Australia said mortality rates had improved since new standards were introduced after the 2003 Cormo Express debacle, where 52,000 sheep were stranded at sea for 10 weeks after a dispute with buyers in Saudi Arabia.

In a summary of the Maysora incident tabled in Parliament this year, AQIS listed several conditions now imposed on the exporter including that it carry sufficient antibiotics to contain any pneumonia outbreaks, and to provide more space for cattle.





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