Slaughtered in the street: Brutal treatment of Australian sheep caught on camera
The animals were subjected to the fear and distress of having their legs bound, stuffed into car boots, and dragged and killed in the streets or sold for backyard slaughter.
MICHAEL DHALSTROM: Disturbing footage showing Australian livestock being brutally mistreated in the Middle East has led to calls for an urgent intervention. Video obtained by Animals Australia shows sheep, which exporter Livestock Shipping Services (LSS) allegedly lost control of in Jordan, killed on the street. Animals Australia said the video was shot two weeks ago in Jordan in 10 locations around the country during the lead-up to the Eid festival.
RSPCA Australia has viewed the video and asked for the government to monitor exported Australian animals with real-time CCTV and electronic tracking to prevent further abuse of animals. The RSPCA says the video evidence shows the systems in place to protect animals exported overseas are not working. Investigators say they encountered vendors openly advertising Australian sheep for sale after herding them from the back of a truck.
Video shows one large sheep is stuffed into a car boot, while another is lifted upside-down onto the back of a ute. The camera then turns to show the street stained with blood, where some of the animals were butchered in the street and a row of dead sheep were lined up for sale on the ground. These pictures were too confronting to include in this story. Coloured ear tags photographed in the ears of the sheep are said by Animals Australia to link LSS to some of the animals shown in the video…
RSPCA Australia Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow said LSS’s alleged breaches involve thousands of animals. “How many more animals need to be subjected to the fear and distress of having their legs bound, being thrown into car boots in the stifling heat, and subjected to makeshift home slaughter, before the Department of Agriculture will revoke this exporter’s licence?” Dr Goodfellow said. “The current approach of simply applying additional conditions to an exporter’s supply chain during their next consignment has failed dismally – it has proven to be only a minor inconvenience rather than a sufficient deterrent”…
Lisa Chalk from Animals Australia questions why the company has not had their licence suspended, arguing that if harsh action isn’t taken, further breaches will follow. “It’s worth considering what a ‘regulatory breach’ means for the animals – being stuffed into car boots, dragged and killed in the streets or sold for backyard slaughter at the hands of untrained slaughtermen,” she told Yahoo News Australia…
The department of agriculture told Yahoo News Australia it is currently investigating the matter and has requested further information from the exporter. “The exporter has identified the source of the loss of control which resulted in sheep leaving the approved supply chain,” a spokesperson said… “The department will take further appropriate regulatory action as necessary and will publish a report of the outcomes of its investigation”… Livestock Shipping Services did not respond to Yahoo News Australia’s requests for comment. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: