Published 18/08/2011

A bill which would have stopped live exports from Australia immediately has failed to pass through parliament but the debate on the practice continues.

All live cattle exports from the country to Indonesia were suspended in June after charity Animals Australia released gruesome footage showing extensive cruelty to Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs.

A month later, the government announced the ban was off. Compassion in World Farming was among the animal welfare groups that condemned this decision at the time.  Compassion is disappointed that new legislation to ban the trade has failed but the public rallies in Australia over the weekend that attracted thousands of people showed the strength of feeling against live exports.

The fact a bill which proposed an end to live exports was even debated in Australia should encourage those opposed to the trade.  

Peter Stevenson, Compassion's Chief Policy Advisor, who gave a series of lectures in Australia on the subject last week, said: "From Ramsgate in the UK to Freemantle in Australia, there are thousands of people opposed to this cruel trade.  It is a global trade but it has a global opposition."  

Live Export in the EU

Our recent investigations into long distance animal transport in the EU have uncovered evidence of animals suffering serious welfare problems.

One of these recent investigations found sheep being taken from Romania to Greece and found animals:

• standing and lying on floors soaking with animal waste;
• being trampled by others;
• in trucks that gave them insufficient headroom;
• with no access to water on at least part of their journey, which lasted around 26 hours;
• with their limbs hanging out of the side of trucks due to overcrowding.

In another, in association with Eyes on Animals and the Animal Welfare Foundation, 44 animal transports were checked at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey and extreme welfare problems leading to severe animal suffering were discovered.

One Way Ticket campaign

With our One Way Ticket campaign, we've been working to end live exports from the UK and believe long distance transportation of animals is wrong. Animals should be slaughtered as close as possible to the farm where they are born and reared and the trade in live animals should be replaced by a trade in meat.

Take action:

• You can write to the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and ask the Australian government to think again and to phase out the live trade as a matter of urgency. You can say that you are extremely disappointed that the Australian government blocked the bill to ban live exports. You can also point out that Australia's trade inflicts massive suffering on animals due to the sheer length of the journeys, the massive number of animals involved and the inhumane slaughter methods inflicted on Australia's animals in the importing countries.
• Act now on Europe's One Way Tickets