Dear friends, As you know, the Howard Government deems it acceptable to send millions of Australian animals to the Middle East each year to endure horrific cruelty and the terror of having their throats cut whilst fully conscious. Acting on an industry tip off, Animals Australia alerted Federal Agriculture Minister McGauran to the alarming news that a Victorian abattoir is killing sheep by this barbaric method to fill a contract for a Middle Eastern buyer. In Australia, slaughter standards require that sheep be electrically stunned to ensure that they are unconscious at the time, or immediately after, their throats are cut. Animals Australia met with Minister McGauran last Wednesday. We expected him to immediately close the 'loop-hole' being exploited in the standards. Instead—rather than acknowledge the barbarity of slaughter without stunning—Minister McGauran is considering allowing it to continue! He wants to debate whether being conscious for up to 20 seconds whilst your throat is cut and you are bleeding to death causes suffering! Allowing this to continue is unconscionable. Islamic authorities in Australia have deemed stunning acceptable as part of religious slaughter. As a result millions of animals are being killed more humanely here and being exported chilled, rather than being exported live to the Middle East. Animals Australia’s legal advice is that killing animals without stunning is illegal under federal laws (failure to comply with a ‘Standard’ required under the Export Control Act 1982), and that it also breaches the Victorian Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. It is therefore also within the power of Victoria’s Agriculture Minister Joe Helper to stop these practices.
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