http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/slaughterhouse-operator-apologises-for-cruelty-20110601-1fgrl.html

Yabby,
I meant to say thanks for putting that up. Mean time given MLA want to horde the money questions have been asked what can be done to help the farmers with a few donations for their extra feed bills.

I am flat strap but if you wanted to pas the word around happy to also contribute. Lets do something to help our farmers on behalf of the Australian public. It is to be hoped as fast as we can the accreditation's will be sorted and plants updated asap to get the live trade going again for farmers.

This is why HKM wanted AA to work united for years. Rather than do that they say back allowing these animals to suffer by refusing to come to the table for meetings. Senator Ludwig is angry about three months delay. Hes lucky it wasn't years like us.

At the end of the day as you well know if it doesn't work for the farmers it will never work for animals and vise versa.

Belly the only person here casting personal insults has been Yabby - your defense of him does not reflect well.

I suggest that Yabby should leave the field if he cannot play the ball.

On another thread I printed a link to a feasibility study on reopening Abattoirs, looks like it is is required here:

http://www.getfarming.com.au/pages/farming/articles_view.php?fId=9200020101022084722

The MLA failed to take any action.

On live trade, I agree with Yabby that it is cheaper to ship livestock a bit underweight than over. The cattle sent to Indonesia are then fattened up before slaughter. The issue of no available refrigeration in many parts of Indonesia remains a problem and is why live trade cannot be completely halted. However there is much that can be done to ensure the safe shipment and treatment of livestock - all of which continues to be ignored by the MLA.

The only reasons for the closure of northern abattoirs were financial ones. Here the government could assist. It does so with many industries, aiding the humane treatment of animals would be far more acceptable than many industries that receive government handouts.

On topic of Halal slaughter; Indonesia has many religions, albeit Islam is dominant, but there are significant populations of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists. The images taken by the 4 Corners team were not necessarily of a Halal slaughter yard.

Again, I do not understand why Yabby continues to be so upset by suggestions to increase humane treatment - he himself has made suggestions to improve slaughter methods in previous posts. Seems to me that he does not like anyone making suggestions other than himself.

*The MLA failed to take any action*

Ammonite, it is not the role of MLA to run meatworks. Meat processors
do that. So your claim is flawed.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/07/21/165831_nt-business.html

The industry does indeed examine those possibilities, at present
the best option is that AAco will go ahead for a meatworks in Darwin,
for cattle that are too heavy for the boats. That is complimentary
to the trade, not a replacement for it. Fact is that trucking
those cattle south, is simply too expensive.

MLA does in fact invest funding in humane handling of livestock,
all the way from farm to the abattoir. Most of their animal welfare
expenditure has gone exactly there. Just not enough at the point
of slaughter, so your comment is again invalid.

Given that you regularly cast personal insults, don't me amazed
if people return them. You deserve them.

Whatever you think of abattoir practices in Indonesia, it's looking increasingly like they won't involve Australian stock, given the legislation currently being introduced by Nick Xenophon and Andrew Wilkie to ban all live exports from Australia within 3 years.

I would have thought that the industry would be able to be conducted humanely if there had been a real will to do so, but official Australian awareness of cruelty within the industry apparently dates back years, and if the indifference to animal welfare we've seen here is in any way representative it's not all that hard to see why.

As I've said before, Australia doesn't need a live exports industry. Rather, it's been up to the industry to demonstrate they can operate in a manner acceptable to the Animal Welfare standards of most Australians. At that, they've failed.

Morgan, just because a couple of politicians have introduced a bill,
hardly shows that they understand the economic complexities involved
in the discussion.

Western Australia certainly does need a live trade, as farmers
demonstrating this weekend showed, by outnumbering vegans by 4 to
1. Try and legislate against that, you will have riots on your
hands.

The question will really come down to the use of stun guns or
not. As it happens, all through country Australia, livestock
are slaughtered without them, even in some meatworks.

IMHO they should be required for cattle, perhaps not for sheep.

All this is still up for debate.

In the end Wilkie and Xehenphon will be rolled, as common sense
and reason will prevail and politicians are not about to destroy
the livelyhoods of thousands of Australians, because those 2 lack
an understanding of agricultural economics.

http://fw.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/wa-farmers-unite-for-live-exports/2199472.aspx

There we go, even a West Australian meat processor at the demo,
pointing out that we need the live trade.

WA really should secede from you lot. People have had a gutful.
Then you can live in your banana republic.