Sheep and Cattle export.

[Alan Briggs]

Albanese tried to do this before the election but political pressure forced him defer it.

[Noel Kelly]

I have vivid memories of taking a tour of a meat factory in Berisso Argentina and was shocked to say the least, especially how they slaughtered the cows with sledge hammers and not all killed with one blow. They would jab the animal with an electric gizmo to make the animal raise its head to give the hammer swinger a better shot. It got worse but i won't go into that. Mind you that was in 1954 so don't know if any humane changes have been made. My tour was made when I was 2nd. Freezer on the RMS Deseado. It was amazing to see the end result, a tin of corned beef.

[Tony Taylor]

I have vivid memories of taking a tour of a meat factory in Berisso Argentina and was shocked to say the least, especially how they slaughtered the cows with sledge hammers and not all killed with one blow. They would jab the animal with an electric gizmo to make the animal raise its head to give the hammer swinger a better shot. It got worse but i won't go into that. Mind you that was in 1954 so don't know if any humane changes have been made. My tour was made when I was 2nd. Freezer on the RMS Deseado. It was amazing to see the end result, a tin of corned beef.

I was alongside in Lagos right next to the slaughter house, we could actually look down onto the enclosure, all open air with roofed in edges; they started slaughter in the morning by chasing the unfortunate beasts with axes and then on the evening they held a disco on the premises.

[Steve Singleton]

To my mind.... There is just no need for it. It is based purely and simply on barbaric,& Dark-Ages thinking.
As J Sabourn below says: One has to have some feeling for animals: Not to do, in my opinion is equally bad:
But Man is a carnivore....another animal that eats animals: Let's at least rise above animalistic behavior if we must slaughter them to feed us; And we will. We will continue to do so.
Despite the ever increasing violence from the veggie sector; I will continue to eat meat and continue to do as a decent human being. It is that simple.

However: As I said above:
To transport them, across half the globe, under such horrific conditions does nothing to appease mankind's conscience. I abhor it and I believe most people do. There is simply no excuse to cause or prolong the suffering of ANY animal.

Then...we could take this a stage further and ask what happened on the 7th of October.......
Because what happened there was a much worse example of what man can do to his fellow man....and has further led to dreadful casualties of human beings on both sides: Worse than any abattoir.
I condone neither side. Both have behaved deplorably. Both have acted in a manner that we believe...erroneously..... beyond the concept of "mankind".

[j.sabourn]

How many have actually carried animals on ships ? My experience was limited to the carriage of horses to Bermuda from Halifax they were carriage horses for a time of no motor cars in the wonderful little Island and time at sea was only days away , but their time on board was not much different than what it would have been ashore apart from the exercise. They had no official handlers so it was me that was given the bolt gun to put out of their misery , which never happened thank goodness , but would have done if necessary . Before that was the carriage of sheep dogs 2 , and 1 owners dog, from Liverpool to Auckland N Z a voyage of 6 weeks. Originally they were placed in kennels on the funnel deck , but didn’t stay long there I took one and it lived in my cabin and came on watch with me , they had a strict diet and the cook who took the other one used to feed his on lamb chops so how it worked out with sheep at a later date who knows , they were for breeding purposes however. Cappies nemesis Captain Robert’s took the spaniel which was privately owned and when had to hand over was in tears and tried to buy unsuccessfully. They were 3 spoiled mutts someone got. The old man Robert’s would have lost his reputation if had been sighted by others being so upset. Animals have to be transported by sea in numerous cases apart from a food source. JS
PS It was a general cargo we had and included in the cargo was a dead lady who had been on holiday in uk from NZ. A top tip I received from the supposedly martinet of a skipper , was to make sure that the coffin was carried up the gangway and stowed in the liquor stowage in sight of crew members . On discharge of this stow in Auckland there had been no pilferage and no break ins during passage. Something I always remember for future use if ever required . Those who brought cats back on board ship were not doing the cat any favours , for if was found by immigration and not declared , it was assumed to have boarded abroad and was destroyed. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Noel.
The big hammers I saw used in NZ had a bullet in the head, they had to swing it hard to get it to fire, there were a few misses so they then had to cut its throat, still not a pleasant way to go for the animal. I thnk that Britain joining the Common Market that stuffed the Kiwi meat trade, so much for the Commonwealth of Nations.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Recall the Brisbane meat works, all killed with the gun.
But one for some reason it did not work, bloody big hammer used to do the job.

But yes I agree we are carnivores, and as long as the animals are cared for and slaughtered in a humane manner then continue.

But to slaughter as some countries do, mid east in particular, then no ,and all live exports to such must stop, NOW!!!!!!!!!

[j.sabourn]

Anyhow what I expected to happen has started today in the W.A. Newspapers. The graziers are totally against live transport of cattle being cancelled and null and void by 2028 JS

[Johnny Kieran]

I have vivid memories of taking a tour of a meat factory in Berisso Argentina and was shocked to say the least, especially how they slaughtered the cows with sledge hammers and not all killed with one blow. They would jab the animal with an electric gizmo to make the animal raise its head to give the hammer swinger a better shot. It got worse but i won't go into that. Mind you that was in 1954 so don't know if any humane changes have been made. My tour was made when I was 2nd. Freezer on the RMS Deseado. It was amazing to see the end result, a tin of corned beef.

Bloody hell! that brings back memories. I too went on a tour of one of those places and it was a bit shocking. We watched them bawling as they were driven off the train into the killing place, hammers were used then too. Within seconds they were hooked up to the "Disassembly" line, to be skinned, gutted, and prepared for loading. The local kids were employed to kick all the fallen bits into a kind of scupper, which ended up being washed away to god knows where. I'll never forget those tears when they were being unloaded, they knew what was coming.
I also went horse riding on a ranch, where they were loading trailers for a factory. Can't remember the name of the place.

[Rodney Mills]

Short version of a previous post. Noel #12.

I and my cabin mate missed our ship in Buenos Aries which had gone up to Rosario and would return in five days to B.A.. So, my mate and I got a job as sweepers and moppers in the kill floor of the slaughterhouse. We puked our guts up and couldn't hold food down, because our minds would flash on the scene of hell we had seen. So we were transferred to the refer room and froze our ass off. We couldn't travel across country because Ava Peron had just died, and the country was in an uproar.

The best story I heard was from a meat salesman that would come into the kitchen where I was Executive Chef, and he would come into my office, and we would have coffee while I was putting the order together. He was royally pissed. He had just bought a new Crombie overcoat. A class of agriculture students arrived to take a tour through the meat plant. He took them to the kill floor first. There were a dozen females and one male student, as a steer was coming up the ramp, he raised his arm and pointed just as the steer was killed and the male student upchucked and vomited his breakfast all across the salesmen's arm of his brand-new Crombie camel-hair overcoat. he was fainting so his flow got the arm and down all the back of his coat. He said he wished he could slap a couple of hooks through his tendons and run him through the system for steaks, chops and roasts. The coat was ruined.

His prices were a bit off, so I was going to give him a pass on a meat order that week, but I didn't have the heart. That would have really made his day.

Cheers, Rodney