belly,
Let me make it quite clear. I was talking about either purchassing existing or building new abbitoirs in INDONESIA. There is no reason our killing cost would be higher than Indonesian owned abbitoirs.

The 4 corners show stated that our meat was preferred by Indonesians because it was better, that would not change. There are some abbitoirs there that do comply with our standards and we could continue to supply them with cattle.

Rehctub,
I think the MLA has tried the training and education way for long enough and should admitt failure. That is why I suggest ownership of the killing works, so we are in total control, with our key personel in charge.

That is the only way we can ensure our standards are met. As an employer you would well know that even under the best supervission, there will still be occasional breaches of your standards by staff, sometimes for the most stupid of reasons. I have witnessed this and no doubt you have also.

*RSPCA and other animal welfare organisations in this country should apply pressure on our government to see that this kind of behaviour is stopped and stopped immediately.*

They are doing that Lexi, but they are proposing the wrong solution.
Shut down the live trade and the law of unintended consequences will
kick in, you will create far more animal welfare issues then
you solved.

Its going to take more then good intentions to solve this one,
more like a deep understanging of all the issues and the implications
involved. There are indeed solutions, but knee jerk reactions are
not going to solve them.

...This thread makes me want to cry out “get yourselves a life”. Where were you when Indonesians slaughtered 185,000 East Timorese during their occupation of East Timor between 1975 and 1999. Those 185,000 were actually “humans”. This lot have no moral boundries.Get in touch with reality.

Dear Yabby,

Thanks for your response and sad as it is you're probably right - kneejerk reactions won't work. What do you suggest will?

Dear Diver Dan,

Where were we when East Timorese people died? Where were you? Why do you feel that someone who feels horror at the torture of animals would not feel the same horror at the deaths of humans? If you need to sling off at somebody - target the guilty, please.

Yabby: "Deep understanding of all the issues and
the implications involved"?

The issues as I see them are simply that the cattle
are bred here in Australia.

The Breeder then sends them to Darwin for loading on
to a Livestock freighter for shipment.

Subject cattle are unloaded in Indonesia (wherever)
and topped-off.

Cattle are then transported to Abattoir of selection.

Slaughter proceeds under primitive conditions, to
acheive and satisfy the barbaric Halal requirements!

What more needs to be said?....except the blood-money
created by this industry, should be put back into
creating a humane slaughter system, with decent human
beings supervising at the point of slaughter.

Building a steel box does nothing more than hide the
atrocities being committed from public view.

I would also mention Yabby, that I am NOT a veggan, nor
am I aligned with any group opposed to this barbarism,
however I have been a cattle breeder, and I have always
treated my cattle as humanely as possible,....but then
being from the old school, I didn`t poison the flesh
of my cattle month after month to bolster the profits
of the chemical companies!

As was stated, it is highly unlikely that we will ever
change the habits of the monkeys on the end of the knives,
so we are left with the only viably humane solution..
...Stop the Live Exports! If they want our meat then
let them eat it chilled or change their religious beliefs!

Crackup, if you watched the start of the documentary, they in fact
showed a short clip of cattle in Indonesia being slaughtered humanely,
using stun guns, all Halal. So far its been introduced in 5 meatworks
there, with another 5 due shortly for conversion.

If anyone can be criticised, it is our own MLA, for not rolling out
more of these facilities earlier. But their funding has been limited.

Nothing is stopping the taxpayer from making a small contribution
and speeding things up.

So your racist assertions that they are all monkeys and that only
we in Australia know how to do things, is flawed by the evidence.
We in Australia commit cruelty to animals every single day. Just
ask the RSPCA.

I remind you that still during my lifetime, livestock were killed
with a knife in many abattoirs in Australia. Some still are.

Why don't you care about Indonesian livestock slaughtered in
Indonesia? Why only Australian livestock?

Spending a tiny share of our 4 billion $ foreign aid budget on
introducing modern slaughter practices in some parts of the third
world, makes perfect sense and millions of animals will benefit,
including animals born in the third world.

Lexi, I did put my suggestion forward, in a previous post