AC, please, reality check.
In the 'real' world these animals are not pets.
Their whole purpose in life is to be killed and eaten.
Have you ever seen an animal attacked by a pack of, say dogs.
It's not a pretty sight.
But that's life.
Or watched a sheep die of heat exhaustion.
I can do nothing to help them because they have fallen victims of their situations.
If it is your pet that is suffering, by all means go to it's aid.
But to expect anyone to oversea thousands of sheep the same way one would oversea their pet, is clearly mentally imbalanced.
As mature adults we must rationalise and make decisions based on many things.
Thinking like a five year old is not rational thinking and is not the basis of the best or most appropriate outcomes or decisions.
In the real world we have to harden to these things and look beyond to the bigger picture and the end game.
So to all the marshmellows out there, stay home, don't watch telly, don't read the newspapers or look at the internet.
On the other hand, get out more often and sea, read and hear more about the 'real' world and you won't come off looking and sounding like children.

Hey ALTRAV,
Whilst I accept these animals aren't pets, and that that their sole purpose of being born into this world is to die and be eaten, I do draw a line at needless suffering. They may be just a commodity for trade but if there are ways that good policies and standards can be implemented so that our animals come off the boat in the same condition they do on the boat then I would most certainly support those things that might ensure said animals have a standard of care and mortalities are minimised as much as is reasonably possible.
But you got to look at the bigger picture too.
If the Middle Eastern Sheikh or whoever purchases these animals screams "Screw you Aussies! my South American friends let me pack them like sardines and I will buy from them from now on!", and we don't export sheep anymore and 500 Aussie farmers take their rifles, put 'em in their mouths and blow their brains out the top of their skulls for their partners to find, well then that obviously complicates things.

Got to find the right balance I suppose; that said I won't condone or support the needless suffering of animals we export. I'd maybe torerate some of it if the business was essential to our farmers, but in principle not really and I think the animals deserve to be treated fairly and not poorly treated while alive.

We have all notices have we not? in any thread any subject we let our views about politics drive us? even to the point of claiming others views are a result of their WRONG politics?a visitor from another country briefly dropping in on our verbal combat may well think we can not,some of us, give consideration without insulting one another to the point of forgetting what we are talking about?yes know I am a new comer/returnee but it needs to be said now and again so as a Libtard lefty it remains my view man has impacted badly on this planet, and we must one day find better ways to stop doing that, from turning our best coast farm lands to housing, to truly re using and recycling our waste, and to stop profiting by introducing schemes that are known to never ever be going to work EG one plastic bag for another

Shopping over for next two weeks got my first look at the new 15 cent bags, nine of them, already on the way to land fill I do not and will not use dirty bags to carry my food, and why put them in the recycle bin? we know,local press told us, it only goes in to land fill in any case, another good intention that resulted in nothing changing.

Belly the reason so many bags go to land fill rather than recycling, is because the loads become contaminated, and once this occurs the whole load is dumped.

Take drink/milk bottles. Before placing them in the recycle bin, they should be rinsed and the lids left off. Hang on! what about the wasted water used to clean them? Dog chasing its tail perhaps.

The recycling thing is just a huge money making scam, a scam that has made some people very rich.

The fact is that the only reason we even have an issue with plastic bags is because of irresponsible people, and just because you change the law will not change their attitudes, so responsible people get charged or change their ways, while irresponsible people keep doing what they have been doing simply because they don't care and the problem remains.

Yet another case of treating the symptom but ignoring the cause.

Single-use plastic bags is a misnomer. They have never been single-use at my place.

Most are clean when brought home from the supermarket and I use them to collect used tissues, other paper products, and kitchen garbage.

Then it's off to the wheelie for land fill.

All this new move does is force me to purchase bags that will be used for the same purpose as the alleged single-use plastic bags - to the dump.