Archive for the ‘Habitat Advocacy’ Category

Please don’t halal me!

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013

Australian live sheep endure halal torture in a Kuwait livestock market, October 2013

[Source: Animals Australia, ^http://www.banliveexport.com/take_action/kuwait-sheep-sold-illegally/]

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<< On streets, in backyards and in back rooms at markets, countless sheep, during the Festival of Sacrifice, endure the agony of having their throats cut whilst fully conscious. Often killed by untrained hands, there’s no guarantees of a quick end to their suffering.

In the week leading up to the Festival of Sacrifice, Australian sheep were again found being illegally sold from a notoriously cruel livestock market in Kuwait.

They were destined to be sold to individual buyers for ‘sacrificial’ slaughter.

This very market was the scene of some of the most distressing and confronting cruelty that Animals Australia has ever documented. In 2010 our investigators gathered evidence of sheep being dragged, thrown, trussed and stuffed into car boots, tied onto roof racks and having their throats brutally cut – all while fully conscious.

‘Strict’ live export rules were meant to protect animals from this fate.

But this is the third time Animals Australia investigators have found sheep in this market. Fourteen months ago we lodged our first complaint with the Department of Agriculture. As a result they imposed additional conditions on the export licences of the three exporters who sent Australian animals into Kuwait.

This footage was taken at Al Rai market in August 2012, and sparked Animals Australia’s first complaint to the Department of Agriculture:

Despite the additional conditions placed on the exporter, when our investigators returned in February this year, Australian sheep were STILL being offered for sale from this marketplace. A second complaint supported by extensive evidence was lodged and this investigation is still ongoing – nine months later.

Again, in October this year, Australian sheep were still there. This time on the eve of the Festival of Sacrifice – the peak time of animal cruelty and suffering in the region.

Regulations will continue to be disregarded and animals will continue to suffer unless the exporters responsible face severe penalties for breaches. >>

[Source: ‘Sheep suffer as exporters break rules again’, Aussie sheep endure cruel slaughter in Kuwait livestock market, Animals Australia, Oct 2013]

<< Sydney-based Halal Certification Authority Australia chairman Mohamed El-Mouelhy, Australia’s leading halal certifier, said it was impossible to stop people in the Middle East slaughtering animals at home or in the street.

“It’s part of the culture, and this is something that everyone has to do to give two-thirds to the poor and one-third they keep,” he said.

Fahad Saddique, manager of the Al Yasin halal butchery in Sydney’s Lakemba has called on animal-rights activists to show greater religious and cultural tolerance over live exports.

Australia’s Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has conceded cruelty to exported livestock could not entirely be wiped out. Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott says only “very foolish governments” make “policy on the run on the basis of one or two media reports”.

Animals Australia Lyn White said the problem was not religious, but simply about animal cruelty:

“This case is first and foremost about an Australian export company which has broken the law and whose ongoing disregard for Australian regulations in Jordan should attract the strongest sanctions. Australian export requirements permit halal, fully conscious slaughter, but they state that it needs to occur in abattoirs with appropriate infrastructure and trained workers so that the risks of cruel treatment are reduced.

The on-selling of Australian animals to private buyers for slaughter was strictly banned because of the welfare repercussions, especially during religious festivals. Animals Australia said 10,000 Australian sheep were sold outside the current Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme introduced to make exporters responsible for animal welfare throughout the supply chain. >>

[Source: ‘Call for cultural tolerance over live exports as activists release film’, by Lauren Wilson, Rachel Baxendale, Jared Owens, The Australian (newspaper), 20131101, ^http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/call-for-cultural-tolerance-over-live-exports-as-activists-release-film/story-fn59nm2j-1226750892608]