*they had quail the other day and duck a few weeks before that*

Tony, that is probably because you live in a suburb where alot of
people watch Masterchef, as both duck and quail were used to some
degree, during the series.

In more working class suburbs or where there are alot of pensioners,
there would be mutton. But it is pointless putting stuff on shelves
if it does not sell. My local Coles store can actually order in
things that they think that they can sell. Go to the rich suburbs
and you will find alot more of the most expensive cuts. If people
asked for mutton, they would stock it. The wholesale price of mutton
is less than 2$ a kg, or at least that is what the farmer is paid,
compared to 3.50 for lamb right now.

If mutton was freely available it would gain popularity as people found out what to do with it.
I would not bye lamb from one year to the next. After it's cooked there's nothing left.
Besides that lamb at $35 / kg for loin chops is stupid.

579: You must try to realise that obviously the majority
of respondents to this discussion are motivated by one
single thought,....making money....the be all and end all
of logical thought processes!

The obvious cruelty to animals is of insignificant importance
to these soothsayers of monetary worship. They seem to be
oblivious to the fact that much of this outright cruelty is
avoidable, by the implementation of certain laid-down
guidelines, but for the same old reasons they choose to
move the onus of care and responsibility away from the
recipients of the end product, and continually put the blame
back on the animal rights protection groups, who themselves have
nothing to gain from these situations, except the peace of mind
of knowing that something is being done to alleviate unnecessary suffering at the hands of a bunch of crazy knife-wielding religous zealots.

I reiterate, ...if these animals and all other animals that are
shipped from our shores cannot be handled humanely, then STOP
selling them to these maniacs who seem to derive pleasure out of
the butchering or beheading of lifeforms other than their own!

Now all you naysayers can embark on a process of retaliation
against myself and other supporters of animal rights, if it
makes you feel any better in your support of profit over
cruelty, but remember this,.. the same people who are committing
these acts of savagery, may be one day, in the not too distant
future, be excercising the same brutality upon you or your families!

*myself and other supporters of animal rights*

Crackup, the problem is that some of you behave just like religious
and other zealots, all emotion and no reason. Life is about balance.

So do we ban horse racing, rodeos, family pets, eating meat,
ripping rabbit warrens etc, because you are defending the rights
of rabbits in the burrows for instance? Many of your supporters
want to ban all these things.

I see alot of cruelty and its not normally on professional farms,
but commonly on hobby farms, where the owners are absent for periods
of time and commonly don't have a clue as to what they are doing.

Sheep riddled with lice and worms, animals on poor nutrition as
the owners don't understand how a rumen functions, alpacas with
years of wool on them as the owners don't know how to get it off,
etc. The professional farmers who don't enjoy running livestock, have
long ago switched to 100% crops. Those remaining would soon go broke,
if their animals were not doing well.

Of course farmers have to make a profit, just like you need to
be paid wages. Everyone has bills to pay.

The problem with you zealots is that its all black and white, there
is no balance. You never show the healthy sheep coming off a boat.
You never show that animals going down a meat chain, where treatment
is perfectly acceptable. You don't show the chilled water troughs
in the ME feedlots. Just about every one of you who go on to annoy
farmers on the farming websites, is in fact a vegie or a vegan.

That is another debate entirely, a flawed philosophy IMHO and has
nothing to do with animal welfare, but is about animal liberation.

579, you should change where you shop. Loin chops are half of what
you quote, where I go shopping, at Coles or Woolies. Don't blame
the industry, if your butcher is screwing you. Change butchers.

Tony,
I managed a property for a butcher for 25 years and he sold no mutton at all, simply because there is no demand. I had mutton as a kid but not for 50 years now. Our tastes have changed and no butcher will stock product he cannot sell.

You would be extremely lucky to even find a butcher nowadays that sells hogget (animal about 12 mts old)

In my opinion, hogget has more taste than lamb, but for tenderness you cannot beat roast lamb, with gravey and baked veges, yum.

Yabbys right, if farmers cannot sell the old sheep that have reached the end of their wool producing life, then the whole wool industry will fail. The only ones to suffer from this is us. The one who presently buy our old sheep will buy them elsewhere.

I find it difficult to understand how people can jump up and down about the horrible way the sheep were treated, or cockfights, but say and do nothing about 5-6 year old girls here, in Aus, getting pieces cut off their genetials, without any anaesethic. Now that really makes me reel in horror.

The murder of those sheep, can not be swept under a bag. So who is accountable, the exporter or the farmer.
Because some countries take delight in brutality is a situation that can not be tolerated.
The situation has not come up with a solution, and to just carry on as normal is not on.