The contents of your articles are very selective Mr Cameron Morse and I would advise you to steer clear of our resident industry mouthpiece. He has just destroyed your credibility.

You wrote these articles at the beginning of July 2006. Between January and June 2006, some 18,000 animals were dumped overboard. Why did you not inform the reader of these numbers? Clearly, you regard them as insignificant.

Your articles are no more than a cover-up of the facts and your criticisms of those who are concerned for the welfare of these animals, are despicable.

In addition Mr Morse, despite the bleatings from you and the industry, that welfare standards have now improved, The 2007 year's mortalities at sea exceeded the 2006 year - he hem!

Your articles are a feeble attempt to mitigate the industry's disgraceful reputation.

1. Please view the statistics released to the "Reports to Parliament" section

2. View real farmer and livestock producer, Jenny Hume's professional account of the live export industry. She has a degree in Asian and Arabic/Islamic Studies; has been employed at the Federal Dept of Primary Industry and a management trainer for Vet. officers and meat inspectors in exports.

http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare/export-trade/mortalities

http://webdiary.com.au/drupal-5.2/?q=node/1917

http://webdiary.com.au/drupal-5.2/?q=node/1367

Dickie, I am not a mouthpiece for any industry, I have no association with any
group. I simply express my opinions as a commentator on OLO. It happens
to be quite different to some of the hysteria and nonsense that is expressed by
some fanatics on OLO. A different perspective and some facts, have been
badly missing in some of these debates.

I thought that Cameron Morse expressed rather well, what he actually found
on a live sheep ship. Certainly quite different to what has been claimed by
various animal liberation groups on the internet. So we need to sort fact from
propaganda.

http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/monica/mm3.htm

That’s how the Catholics do it, to try to push peoples emotional buttons, when
it comes to the abortion debate. IMHO the tactics of both lobby groups are
amazingly similar and the philosophical flaws are amazingly similar.

*I have not sought to address the economic fallout of the loss of the live export trade. As Animals
Australia says, "When something is wrong, no amount of profit will make it right". I have little
sympathy for any of the exporting companies*

Above is what Dickie’s blogger wrote. Who mentioned companies? What about the welfare of thousands of farming families? What about the welfare of millions of
sheep? What about the suffering avoided to livestock, in times of drought? What
about the money generated, which buys fodder for remaining livestock in times of drought? What about the suffering of sheep carted for days in trucks, for thousands
of km, to the East for slaughter?

Turning philosophical ponderings about right and wrong into active propaganda
that affects the lives of millions of others, can turn into an absolute nightmare
if it is not thought through properly, as we can see by the Catholic example.
Both these groups ignore nature and ignore the law of unintended consequences.

Catholic philosophy states that is wrong to take a human life at any stage, period.

So various family-planning is banned, boatloads of food and
vaccines are shipped to the third world. The result is a human population explosion
that threatens the future of-the-planet.-tbc

I have yet to note a single person within the animal liberation movement, who has
thought through the consequences of their actions, when it comes to trying to enforce
their philosophies on others. Much like the Catholic Church and we know exactly
what a disaster that has been.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2131379.htm

Given Dickie’s love of 18’000, a URL mentioning the accidental death of
18’000 Australians a year. Oops. I guess it’s not a perfect world after all.

So yup, 18’000 sheep is insignificant, when seen in context of the millions
of sheep involved. A glass being 99% full to me makes far more sense then
panic about a glass being 1% empty.

Fact is, sheep just like people, are made up of all kinds of genetic combinations.
We have strong ones, those with a weak constitution, some more susceptible to
diseases etc. Only in the sheep world it all happens within 5-6 years, rather then
80 years as with humans.

Yes, sheep die of diseases like pneumonia, pulpy kidney, rumen problems,
plus a whole host of diseases, every day on Australian farms. The difference is
that nobody counts them, as in the live trade, but 5% is pretty well accepted by
most Ag Departments as an average figure. They walk around paddocks blind
from pinkeye, most usually recover. Those that don’t die of thirst. That is the reality.

If I have one criticism of the Cameron’s report, it’s the huge amount of time spent
mollycoddling every sheep on these ships. Frankly they would be better off with
a pistol, accept that whilst some sheep will thrive, a small % won’t. Give them
a bullet, then grind them up into fish food, for their fate is to be eaten anyhow.

The shipping companies of course know that the Dickies and Nickys of this world
are hanging onto every statistic. If the figures increase ever so slightly, it’s a major
drama in the eyes of the animal liberation lobby. Is it the best decision for animal
welfare? I doubt it.

Hi all
Back from Melbourne at last, to find Yabby eulogizing Cameron Morse's fairytales., Mr Morse is a journo who writes propoganda for farmers who want to send sheep (and other animals) to this atrocity with a clear conscience. I note he travelled on the "Becrux", not the "Al Kuwait", or the "Bader III", for example. I did read his article/s at the time, and can't recall any detail of significance about handling and slaughter in destination countries, but I'm sure that, if he indeed saw anything, he only saw the minority of sanitized stuff as seen in MLA's one and only (so far as anyone can find) training video. I note that we are still lacking credible (note, credible) sources of information about the "improvements" in importing countries.

Rojo, the fact that animals KNOWN not to cope with these journeys are sent regardless signifies a clear intent of cruelty; a "so what?" attitude to those who suffer and die. Yabby admitted as much himself when he said that Merinos are highly stressed animals (so they continue to send them in their millions regardless). And what do you expect to read on Wellards website, for heavens sake?

If you people are losing 5% of your flocks through neglect and illness, you are careless to say the least. Nor can you use live exports as an argument or response to other appalling practices (trucking animals across the continent; one report speaks of sheep on a truck for 74 hours with no water or feed; some were shot by the SA Police in the end). Nor is the drought an excuse.

Anyone who disagrees with Yabby of course relies solely on emotion, not what they have seen to be fact. You must've eaten too many of those "smarties". I'm afraid, Yabby. Look into ALL the ships, don;t just cite the one that may be okay. As for the Catholic Church - what has that to do with it? Just a red herring, I suspect.

Nicky

*Yabby admitted as much
himself when he said that Merinos are highly stressed animals (so they continue to send them in
their millions regardless*

Yabby agrees that merinos are by nature more highly stressed then many other
breeds. But as the data shows, despite this fact, 99% of merinos get to their
destination just fine. Clearly they must be looked after far better then our Nicky
will admit !

*Mr Morse is a
journo who writes propoganda for farmers*

Actually no, at the time he was the editor of a paper, the idea being to inform.
Tell me what in those articles is a lie?

*If you people are losing 5% of your flocks through neglect and illness, you are careless to say the
least.*

Says Nicky about farmers, when she does not know the first thing about sheep,
farming, sheep diseases, or the West Australian situation in particular.

Are you always this ignorant Nicky?

*Nor can you use live exports as an argument or response to other appalling practices
(trucking animals across the continent;*

Well they have to go somewhere Nicky. Either its to a meatworks, or on a boat, or
on a truck, or in a hole in the ground. West Australian farmers are Australia’s most
efficient farmers. Their job is to run those farms to the best of their ability. We keep
hearing that we need more value adding in Australia. So pay us a price that is as good as is paid in the East, buy them and kill them locally, if you have the intelligence to do it. Clearly city people don’t. All they have done so far is screw the
farmer to make the numbers work. Sorry, its not on. Get rid of payroll tax for meatworks, if that is what you need to do. Are you city people really so useless that
you base your economy on trading houses with one another and then call that GDP?

As I have mentioned before, you ride on the back of farming and mining for your
well-being but it seems beyond you to process those primary-goods-efficiently.

Those interested in the state of our oceans, may know that they are in a particularly bad way. Mass fish deaths are occurring around the planet resulting in the mass deaths of starving sea birds and the oceans now have a record 200 “dead zones.”

These zones engulf thousands of square kilometres of ocean which are so badly polluted that nothing can survive. Nutrients are creating algal blooms which deplete oceans and rivers of oxygen killing marine life on a massive scale.

http://home.att.net/~thehessians/fishkill.html

Agricultural run-offs are largely responsible for eutrophication of oceans and waterways on a global scale, significantly a result of growing livestock – (animal faeces, urine and chemicals.)

Governments refuse to regulate the agricultural industry and like the industry mouthpiece, remain in denial.

However, ag. scientists are endeavouring to address this serious situation - to date with few results.

http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp

Omitted from the observations by scientists on agricultural pollution , is Australia’s estimated 4,000 tonnes of animal faeces and 2-6 million litres of urine washed into the sea from the export of live animals for each single journey.

Australia is the world’s largest live sheep exporter and Government records advise that last year saw around 210 sea journeys for sheep, cattle and buffalo.

Animal faeces: 4,000 tonnes x 210 = 840,000 tonnes per annum

Animal urine including the destructive ammonia: 6 million litres
x 210 = 1,260,000,000 per annum

Then add to the above figures, the bodies of diseased and drug induced animals which die at sea and are thrown overboard to also infect marine life.

Of course one could argue that the oceans are massive. How could one country be responsible for significant ocean pollution?

That is the argument of all the irresponsible big polluters as these countries continue polluting our oceans with relish and without regulatory restraints whilst feigning ignorance of the dire consequences.