Australia Stops Sending Cows to Indonesia
Abuse stokes public outrage
Undercover video taken by Animals Australia, and the public anger that it fueled, has pushed the Australian government to stop the live export of cows to Indonesia for at least the next six months.
The video footage showed animals being beaten, whipped and maimed in slaughterhouses.
“There has been an extraordinary outpouring of rage that our cattle have been treated like this,” said Lyn White, who shot the graphic footage and is the campaign director for Animals Australia.
Indonesia may not be the only country to be cut off in this way by the government. Animals Australia has been campaigning for years against the live export of animals – cows, sheep, goats and more – to the Middle East and other countries.
Before the animals ever arrive at their destinations, they’ve been living in horrendous conditions aboard ships crossing thousands of miles of ocean. And when they finally land, things only get worse.
Australia’s cattle industry is reeling under the ban, which will quickly cause meat prices to fall in Australia as ranchers and factory farms try to unload the animals into the domestic market.
But animal protection groups have scored a big victory.
Read about it at Reuters International.
And a recent column in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses how animal rights and human rights go hand in hand.