2018-04-12
In the wake of the shocking, cruel deaths of 2800 sheep exported from Perth on the Awassi Express, the Greens are calling on the Turnbull government to withdraw permission for the ship to load the current flock of sheep in Fremantle, and for the live sheep trade to be wound up.
“Agriculture Minister David Littleproud must act to end the cruelty and mass deaths of thousands of sheep. He must stop sheep being loaded onto the Awassi Express,” Victorian senator and federal Greens agriculture spokesperson Janet Rice said.
“The Minister has said he is very concerned by the disturbing footage, but those words will mean nothing and he will effectively be condoning the horrific and illegal acts that were revealed this week on national television, unless his words are backed up by action to end the cruelty.”
“The cruelty that was revealed was deeply shocking.”
“Mass deaths of sheep on export boats is sadly not a one-off occurrence. It’s happened before, but the difference this time is we have video evidence.”
“Here in Victoria, as the biggest lamb and mutton producing state in the country, we don’t want to see Australian-grown animals sent off on ships with their welfare at risk, when it’s a win-win for us to process and package meat here in Australia for export, supporting local jobs."
“The Minister has a choice. He can act to transition the industry away from live exports and build our Australian processing industry for boxed, chilled meat export, or he can be complicit in facilitating further cruelty."
“The Greens have plan to end the cruel live export trade and transition the industry to processing livestock in Australia. This will prevent the cruelty of live export that we see time and time again, and provide local jobs in here in Australia.”
Media Release Animal Welfare