I need to add: The displayed abattoir practices shown on the ABC are little more than back-yard slaughter (or quite possibly worse!), and such facilities should be shut down immediately and the proprietors brought to trial for animal cruelty. If Indonesia has no animal cruelty laws then fie on Indonesia.

Further: The facilities suggestion I posted (or similar) should become standard practice as soon as possible, and, if the processors need any convincing of the necessity, just threaten to post the ABC footage broadly on the Internet, and if possible on Indonesian TV (or at least on ABC International). If Indonesian beef consumers were to become acquainted with these ghastly practices I would expect there to be quite a reaction. If this resulted in substantially reduced demand for our beef, tough. (And that is coming from an Oz cattle raiser, me.) Those in the Indonesian abattoir business should then quickly get the message. (Our exports will recover in due course, and, if not, we can do without it, in spite of what Warren Truss may say on the matter.)

we see all the time that halal meat is becoming "more in demand" most of our Chicken eaten in Australia and a lot of our Beef and Lamb are killed to "halal standard". It's not as bad as on Four Corners but it is still crueler than traditional methods. Why? When our islamic population is less than 2% do we repeat this cruelty to appease a very small minority. Ban live exports immedeatly they have been in place since 1993 and all agree that they are more humane today, but are still cruel now. Also for those of us in Australia that do not want halal meat produce 2 or 3% halal label it and allow those who refuse to buy this blessed to another God meat to be consumed by those that want or need it. I don't need or want it blessed to allah

No, Halal meat in this Country is prepared from pre-stunned animals (and by stunned I mean unconscious and well near dead) using stun-guns (actually an explosive powered tool with an effect like a bullet). These operations in Indonesia appear to work on the old-fashioned approach that the animal should be fully aware of what is happening and merely prostrated in order to get the job done.

No Australian Meatworks would be allowed to operate in this way (they'd be shut down & prosecuted), they'd also be headlined in the media very rapidly. Meatworks aren't gentle place, but the gratuitious cruelty in these videos exceeds by far the standards of this Country.

The Cattle Industry would like people to think there is no difference in the manner in which Cattle/Sheep were killed here as opposed to overseas, they make more money by sending live cattle/sheep overseas to be killed (saves them paying Australian Meat Industry Employees). They drove the push to close down most of our Export Meatworks, purely to drive the increase in the live-export market. They have no regard for the livelihoods they destroyed in doing so, why expect them to have any regard for the cattle/sheep killed so cruelly?

Before spouting the Cattle Industry propaganda, maybe you should have a look at the reality? A lot of Companies have been built on the extra profit margin gained from this cruelty and some may go bust, but unless the Meat Industry is rebuilt this will continue.

Runner.

Your religiously driven superstition and cruelty toward people who don't kneel before your um... Christo-Sharia by proxy? is just as irrational and senseless as torturing animals for religious ritual.

The bible doesn't mention abortion. A few verses on life, protecting the innocent, etc. Yet Christian figures condoned rape, buggery, torture, murder, genocide and more.

There are endless forums to voice your opposition to free choice and fear of death manifesting as biblical fundamentalism but this isn't it.

If the topic was education, science or finches you'd be slagging off evolution. If the topic was earthquakes and tsunamis you'd be blaming evil humans. If the topic was the undeniable evidence of climate change, you'd be attacking scientists as atheists and waffling about lefties.

All in all, one concludes exporting you to an Indonesian abattoir would be an entirely satisfactory solution

Custard,

Just a little caution on your posting leveling criticism at the cattle industry, and the suggestion that it was responsible for closing down Oz abattoirs. Sure, segments of the cattle industry, mostly in north Queensland and the Northern Territory, have been involved, and have benefited substantially, but the trade has very much been fueled by the overseas demand for live exports, and promoted and engineered by entrepreneurs seeing an opportunity to make some big bucks. Sure, Meat and Livestock has been a happy, and I imagine well-compensated, collaborator in this, but my understanding is that the trade has been essentially market driven. When you say "cattle industry" you inadvertently take in the likes of myself, but as a southern cattle producer I am not involved, and neither are a great many others. Also, I am fully for Oz processing, and boxed exports, and also regret the loss of Oz jobs, value adding, and quality control assurance.

I also suspect that the involved Oz cattle producers have not really gained extras from this trade, and have been sucked in by middle-men (possibly including some previously running the northern abattoir industry). Profit is a devious and inglorious handmaiden.

Live export of sheep, goats and camels (and maybe horses) have gone through similar problems, and it is certain that standards would have still to be lifted far above where things are at present.

I am convinced we in Oz would all be far better off if all live animal export for slaughter was banned, and I level responsibility firmly at the various Oz governments concerned for allowing this fundamentally unnecessary and inhumane trade, in all its forms.

*I am convinced we in Oz would all be far better off if all live animal export for slaughter was banned*

Speak for yourself there, Salpetre. Its all very well for producers
in South Eastern Australia, where saleyards are full of processors,
competing for your cattle. What would you say if there was only
one or two and they could name their price, due to lack of competition?

You would really have to accept whatever price they offered, unless
somebody in a truck came 4000km to buy your cattle and deducted the
freight from the price they were prepared to pay you.

That is exactly the situation in both Western Australia and the
NT, only in reverse. I've had Eastern States buyers within a few
km of my farm buy sheep and cart them all the way to Victoria
for slaughter, because they were so cheap here.

The live trade, when they operate, have been the only ones keeping
processors honest. But the continuing low prices in WA, which would
have been far lower without the trade, was still too much for many
growers. Their response, sell off another 50% of the flock, so
we are now left with a third of the sheep we used to have. Even
processors now realise that you can only screw farmers for so long.
But its a bit late