Yabby..yes I fully agree with you about trying to shoot cattle with a 22..going back a few yrs ago, in yet another drought on Anna Creek station where there a 100s feral cattle..were shooting that station then and the amount of cattle we came cross bogged in dams was heartbreaking...I tried to shoot as many as I could because they were so hopelessly bogged and just kept returning and becoming bogged again, especially if they had a calf stuck.

The station owner tried to shoot a few using a .22 and it was very cruel.

That drought was very cruel and at that time as well the goverment provided a bounty on dingoe scalps..we shot hundreds of starving mangy dogs living inside the carcasses of dead cattle.

A 22 really only deals with rabbits effectively.

PF..when we were kids my father used to catch a killer once a week..
He used to cut its throat..of course we never used to hang around at that time..it was disturbing to us being kids..but was the only way, being way out on a station we could get fresh meat.

Same thing when he wanted a pig..he ran a few..it was do it yourself or go without.

I dont think things have changed much for a lot of farmers. Some do it really tough and thats the best way they can provide meat for the family. For the uninitiated it probably sounds pretty grusome.

I would say that a very large proportion of city folk fall into that catagory so would have a new jerk reaction when they see it on TV. They like to keep their distance from that sort of reality and when they are confronted, like in a 60 minutes story, they forced to deal with it. Unfotunately the reaction seems to be something like - end lve exports and i will never have to think about those sheep having their throats cut again!

I see it when people come to stay here. A typical response to a pork roast "but its not one of yours is it?" My answer - "no of course not, this is from woolies :)" No point trying to make them to deal with the fact they are eating a dead pig. They just wont eat it! Not all visitors are like that, just a few too many. I have a friend thats makes me swear I will not serve anything that was once living on the farm. She doesnt trust me anymore and brings her own!

That is over simplifying I know. I even quickly wipe the vision of those cattle having their tendons slashed to enable the slaughter men to handle them. That was outright cruelty and lets hope nothing like that happens in this country. There are some very cruel people out there, but farmers, live exporters etc should be judged on their own merits, not lumped in with a pathetic minority.

Great to see Benny back and rightly so..and welcome Banjo...we need good strong intelligent debaters on here. :)))

Rachel06
Thank you for the compliment but I am just like everybody else learning as I go and listening to all on the table to find alternatives to live exports.
I note your posts above and see you are a country girl yourself. I saw your post on the shooting of feral animals and the running the four wheel drives into them so I know your the real deal because yeh thats the way it goes down.

Others raised different issues of slaughtering methods.
I think thats is such an important issue perhaps another thread should be opended. Possibly Bango might like to do that or somebody else like PF or Yabby. As far as I am concerned there is a fair argument in the right circumstances to argue yes to cut the throat of an animal instead of a shot''at times' and in certain conditions can be kinder. Preference however would be that all animals were slaughtered at abattoirs with strict guide lines.
Yabby I think raised a very good point about what goes on in regional areas outside the public eyes. I will look for your post on the other thread with interest. Nobody said however the plants were being opended only to be re closed. Where do you get that idea from. kosha in my books is the worste of all. It all comes back to more laws required and enforcable codes of practises. More inspectors for the RSPCA
The Animal Welfare act is the only act of Australian Parliment that simply is not enforced.
More shared resonsibiltys between the police and RSPCA is required.
Animals Australia also have pushed for the changes for a long time.

Still warts and all Animals do have a far more supervised method of slaughter in Australian abattoirs. That brings me back to not wanting to get off post and staying on the live Animal Export thread.
However if somebody started another thread on slaughtering methods I would certainly be interested to support it

Rachel, who are intelligent posters on here is a matter of opinion:)

PF, good points about city slickers and meat. If alot of them took
a tour of a meatworks, they would die of shock, its heads flying off
and blood everywhere, but thats the reality of it, close your
eyes if you will. Watch a lion kill an antelope, thats pretty messy
too, not all harmonious bliss, as many claim nature to be.

My ex is actually a lovely lady, but she is only happy in cities,
where she has her shopping centres, fingernail parlours etc.
To give her credit, she tried country life, but you either love
it or not, somehow I think there is a genetic component, its not
something you can force. So we split amicably. Personally I can't
live in cities anymore, its just not me.

PFs post reminded me of one day, when the ex insisted that she wanted
to watch me butcher a lamb. Against my better instincts, I
eventually gave in to the nagging :) I kind of knew what would
happen lol. Sure enough, she never ate home butchered lamb again,
but the stuff in the supermarkets, in plastic, on little black
trays, that was ok :)