The Live Exports Debacle

Recently, there have been numerous calls to ban live exports to the Middle East by animal welfare campaigners. A new international report, launched in Sydney, alleges Australia's live animal trade as one of the worst in the world, especially with Australia's live sheep export to the Middle East.

During the last 30 years, Australia has sent more than 150 million sheep and cattle to be slaughtered in other parts of the world, such as the Middle East and South East Asia. Approximately five million sheep a year are being exported from Australia for slaughter overseas – travelling on crowded ships for up to three weeks or more, causing severe emotional stress for all animals exported en masse in cruel and cramped conditions.

It is important to note that two per cent of these sheep die during the voyage, albeit being young and healthy animals. Big ships carry 100,000 sheep, translating to 2000 dead sheep every three weeks. In addition, over two million sheep have perished during export since 1981.

The appalling condition during shipment – standing and lying in ankle-deep urine and faeces for weeks – will inevitably cause diseases and respiratory distress, which will eventually lead to death due to loss of appetite, Salmonella infection, and other injuries.

On top of that, pellets and water are usually rationed out only once a day. There is also the distressing handling and treatment of the animals once they arrive in the Middle East, which includes the beating of animals, throwing them into trucks, and so on. All this put together is simply analogous to animal cruelty.

On that note, one would wonder why there is such a huge demand for live exports to the Middle East. The answer is simple: Halal. More often than not, Halal has been said to be an all-encompassing concept and a lucrative industry. For example, the value of live sheep exported to Egypt in 2006 was approximately AUD2.8 million.

Subsequently, the Australian livestock export industry is a major contributor to the Australian economy, contributing AUD1.8 billion each year to GDP, or Gross Domestic Product. It is also reported that the industry created export earnings of over AUD831 million in each of the last five years.

However, even with such an important income for Australia, why is there still commotion about live exports and the call to ban live exports from Australia to the Middle East? The main reason why there is such an enormous demand from the Middle East for Australia’s livestock is that there is still a lack of trust, transparency, and accountability in the Halal slaughter practice in Australia.

“The reason why live exports of animals to OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) countries is so important is because Halal slaughtering methods need to be closely adhered to in non-Muslim exporting countries,” says KasehDia executive director, Nordin Abdullah.

Presently, the Australian live export industry adheres to an Operations and Governance manual, containing the operational procedures of a livestock export business. However, there is still something missing in the framework.

In the manual, operators of premises registered for preparing, holding or assembling livestock prior to export must submit an operations manual with their application for registration. The manual must contain operational procedures for ensuring that the premise addresses the standards. This is to ensure compliance to the procedures and the standards.

Thus, to overcome this livestock debacle, there is a need to incorporate the livestock standards in Halal standards, and then to integrate these standards with quality assurance systems.

The Halal concept is indeed a holistic concept, which includes logistics, slaughtering method, packaging, and science. Naturally, the Halal standard would also be an all-encompassing one. There are various areas to cover in the Halal standards; for example, in terms of Halal slaughtering, the key requirement is not to kill animals in the presence of other animals. These animals are also not to be bound and should be killed with a single cut to the throat. Thus, the nature of Halal itself champions ethics and protects the animal welfare.

“This is one area that the animal rights lobby needs to understand if they are truly concerned with the well-being of the animals,” added Nordin.

Integrating the Halal standards with ethics, animal welfare, operational procedures, and slaughtering into the framework is much needed and welcomed to ensure Halal integrity is protected from farm, across the sea and in the ship, to fork.