Banjo, yup but its not just teens. Right now some of the farming forums are being flooded by wellmeaning city housewives, who are going to show it to those mean and greedy farmers. Frankly they don't have a clue about the realities of farming, as their comments
show.

So they go to websites like AA, totally misunderstand what some of
figures actually mean and completely misunderstand what its all about.

I'll give you an example. Everyone who has run livestock knows that if you run them in numbers, you will get some deaths. For all sorts
of reasons, from snakebite, lambing issues, bloat, various diseases,
blowflies etc. If you change their diet and put them into a feedlot,
even with all the hay, oats, lupins, minerals and the rest, you will get some losses from things like acidosis, as the rumen adjusts.
You can buffer with bovatec, bicarb of soda etc, but you still get odd cases. So 1% losses in a feedlot and 5% losses in the paddocks,
are commonly accepted figures, unless we introduce medicare for livestock. Livestock vets understand all this, its quite complex.

Yet our city housewives are convinced that the 1% of sheep which have a problem on a ship, are major animal cruelty.

I refuse to fill out such an inept survey.It has no depth of analysis to it and has questions that pander to the inate bias of it's creator.

Here are the answers:

1. Gender? Male

2. Age: 60+

3. Have you watched the ABC Four Corners report last year (2011) by Animals Australia about the cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs?

Some of

4. If not, are you at all aware of the news reports and issues surrounding the live shipping of Australian cattle to countries such as Indonesia?

Yes

5. After the release of the first report about cruelty on four corners, live cattle export was suspended by the Gillard government for 3 months. Considering the $700 million-a-year live export industry pays wages for many farmers and injects wealth into the Australian economy, do you believe the cattle’s welfare should continue to be compromised?

Yes

6. The agricultural minister, Joe Ludwig suggests stun guns can be implemented into Indonesian abattoirs and systems will be put into place to track and monitor animal abuse. Animals Australia say that this has been proposed before and nothing has changed and nothing will change unless all live trade is stopped – a statement backed by multiple volunteers who have witnessed the mistreatment. Do you Believe:

Don’t care

7. Another debate is whether the cows should be killed more ethically in Australian abattoirs then sent overseas rather than putting the animals through the stress of the live shipment.
Do you agree with this statement?

Don't care

8. Any further opinions on the matter?

No

I do not think we can be sure what the author thinks, or that we need to insult her.
But yabby Banjo Steven and was it hasbeen I agree.
Even with yabby, and mine from above, use of the term housewife's.
No chance ever a City animal health and welfare activist can understand the reality's of country life.
Just imagine, if this trade dies, hundreds of thousands of cattle die horrible deaths .
Or we become up to our arm pits in cattle.
Who cares for prawns? I eat a lot of them, boiled to death at sea, too hard for stun guns!
And chooks, hung up side down and their heads cut off!
Who truly cares, lets feed the hungry first

Never been a fan of live export. Should be processed in AU.
Done survey.

Perhaps Lauren could address an issue which more city people might
understand a bit about and where I for once agree with the Greens
and 80% of the public.

Why do the two major political parties insist that we torture some
old people in palliative care, against their wishes, for weeks,
months and years, until they gasp their last breathe, all in the
name of religious dogma.