[Greens-Media] MEDIA RELEASE: Australian Government report on Pakistan sheep massacre a farce

[Jegatheeswaran, Brami (Jegan) (Sen L. Rhiannon)]

24 July 2013



MEDIA RELEASE

Australian Government report on Pakistan sheep massacre a farce

A government report released today into the brutal killing of 20,000 Australian sheep in Pakistan last year which has failed to hold anyone accountable, is another damning example of how the government continues to fail animals in the live export trade.

Greens spokesperson for animal welfare Senator Lee Rhiannon said: "the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, has cleared exporter Wellard of any wrongdoing despite evidence being to the contrary. DAFF's inquiry has failed to even investigate the key factors that led to the brutal cull of these animals including whether Wellard's failure to tell the Pakistan government that the sheep had just been rejected by Bahrain sparked the intervention by Pakistani authorities.



 "Australians will rightly be outraged at this farcical inquiry after being promised that this new system of regulation would not only protect animals from abuse in importing countries but would hold exporters responsible for breaches accountable.

"That the Department of Agriculture has failed in its duty to properly investigate this incident - delivering a report that above all else protects the live export industry - confirms why an Independent Office of Animal Welfare is so desperately needed.

"ESCAS is a failed and unworkable system as the humane slaughter of Australian animals cannot be controlled from a desk in Canberra.  In the short time this regulatory system has been operating, numerous examples of the appalling treatment of exported animals have been exposed.

"The best way to end the cruelty and to provide Australian farmers with the certainty they need is to stop exporting live animals, process the meat in Australia and increase boxed meat exports," Senator Rhiannon said.

Greens animal welfare spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon has

*         an end live export bill currently being debated in the Senate http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/banliveexportbill

*         issued a report on the five steps need to build the domestic processing industry and transition from live exports http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/greens-release-live-exports-position-paper-building-domestic-meat-processing

*         repeatedly called for Labor's establishment of the overdue Office of Animal Welfare http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/time-act-office-animal-welfare



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Brami Jegan
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