An important and timely commentary. As animal cruelty in abbatoirs fades out of media spotlight public outrage dissipates. Filming the atrocities committed against animals confronts us most powerfully. Any effort by industry to prevent scrutiny and to water down legislation should be relentlessly challenged.

I am sure the idiotic knee jerk reaction of the the Gillard Government on this issue would be one she is hoping will fade quickly. She brought yet another Australian Industry to its knees and the closer an election gets the more she will be hoping it fades from the minds of the rational people.

Runner How can you say that about animals, being a man of god.

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'Runner How can you say that about animals, being a man of god.'

I said nothing about animals in my post. No sensible person wants cruelty to animals however eating meat keeps people alive. Animals are bred for food. Making a political decision based upon pure emotion from a TV documentary which threatened severely to destroy hard working Australians livelyhood was purely wrong.

Tony Abbott due to his 'religous'beliefs was thought by many to be out of line for his views on abortion as the Health Minister. Why then are not vegans and vegetarians out of line because of their 'religous'beliefs that we should not eat a lesser 'évolved' being? If Abbott should be excluded from the abortion debate why should not Vegetarians be exluded from the live export trade debate?

I remember very vividly the reaction to the 4 Corners show the day after it screened. Every single person - whether they had seen the entire show, just seen snippets on the news bulletins or heard about it on the radio was aghast. We go on treating animals like that. The scary thing is we know so little. It was the bravery of a few women and the strange acquiesance of the abbatoir workers that meant that for those single moments what occured was digitally recorded and able to be seen. Yet it is happening all the time. If people only knew, they would be outraged and things would change. As Paul McCartney said "If slaughterhouses had windows, we would all be vegetarians" I believe it is true.

The shutdown last week of a Victorian pig abattoir over animal
cruelty issues, shows that it can happen anywhere, even right under
our very noses.So much for insisting that only in Australia can
livestock be slaughtered humanely.

There are indeed a number of benefits coming out of the Indonesia
saga. Dozens of works are upgrading and equipping themselves with
stun guns. Abattoirs in other market destinations are upgrading
too. These places don't just slaughter Australian livestock,
so animals of all nationalities benefit.

So the live trade is in fact doing a whole lot of good, even if
some radical vegans will never accept that.

500 sheep dying on a shipload of 60'000 is indeed acceptable. But
then I don't think that the author knows much about ruminant nutrition
and the issues involved. Australian livestock in the paddock would
have similar losses. Its not bambiland out there, even if some
kid themselves.

*As Paul McCartney said "If slaughterhouses had windows, we would all be vegetarians" I believe it is true.*

Nonsense. For those who live in fairyland maybe. We are far kinder
to livestock then to our old people. Its all over in a few seconds
for them. Our old people have to gasp until their last breathe,
suffering, as we stand and watch and refuse to give them a choice
about the matter. Fact is that death is never pleasant, but its
reality.

Yabby,
reminds me of standing on the jetty & listening to an angler about the cruel practices in slaughter yards whilst simultaneously letting his catch flapping & gasping on the cement until it died. Then, he grabbed a little live fish & pushed a gang hook through it & throw it back into the water.

While the debate on live animal exports may be less in the forefront at present, it is now in the hearts and minds of many Australians, where it was not before, as the livestock industry had so successfully put the blinkers on the population. Education is something many of the supporters of this industry must fear - and rightly so, as there is clearly now an ever expanding movement to have these industries at least better regulated, and at most, out of business completely. While the Gillard government has been accused of an ''emotional response which brought the industry to its knees', many of us are proud to own such emotions and feel there is much that is positive to be said for feeling, acknowledging and acting on emotions because it is our emotions, and our ability to make choices, that make us human. Compassion is at the heart of life itself - without it, the human race is nothing, and these defenseless animals deserve us to respond an act accordingly when we witness such inhumane brutality. No excuses for animal cruelty.

You need to specify a level of cruelty that is not acceptable. Some examples of cruelty could mean.
Going without water whilst being transported. [ how long is acceptable]
Moving them to a holding pen, with no food.
Sheep giving birth, while foxes await arrival of dilation.
Punching holes through ears without anesthetic. We need guidelines, instead of a blanket cruelty

HunnioBunnio, I too am against animal cruelty. The problem with
the live trade debate is that we have a bunch of city housewives
commenting, who generally don't know the first thing about livestock.

No, they are not like the pet poodle.

Some informed comment by qualified people would be welcome. Just
wearing your heart on your sleeve about industries which most city
people simply don't understand, won't cut it, I am afraid.

The law of unintended consequences is never far away and banning
the live trade won't solve animal cruelty, in fact it would create
more animal cruelty in Australia and more animal cruelty overseas.
But to understand all this and the implications, it helps if posters
are informed, rather then just emotionally engulfed.

All emotion with little reason can be downright dangerous, even if
people mean well.

City slickers, or ass likers. which ever fits the situation. Would not know which way is up, let alone cruelty, more goes on in suburbia than any where else. Some times you have to be cruel to be kind. Something so called liberationists would not understand. They need to look inside their own back yard, and get a feel for cruelty. Take a look at the animal kingdom and deny cruelty. Liberationists are in the same trench as god botherers. A blanket solution does not fit all.