Australian television viewers were this week confronted with graphic scenes of animals being slaughtered in preparation for religious festivals in Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia. This video was shot by the activist group "Animals Australia " and the scenes depicted were termed "atrocities ".
They probably were - in the imagination of people who have never set foot in an abattoir. Australian's of today select their meat from the refrigerated display in supermarkets, where the product is trimmed and tastefully presented on a plastic tray and covered with a polythene film. The actual "butchering "is done well out of sight.
Back before the supermarket era we got our meat from the local butcher's shop. We were used to seeing sides of beef, pork and lamb hanging from hooks and we waited while the butcher cut our order from these carcases, trimmed the fat and put the meat on the scales. The actual slaughter of the animals took place in a distant abattoir and those carcases arrived at the butcher's shop in a refrigerated truck.
Any Australian abattoir is not a nice place to visit. The squeamish would be horrified at the blood and gore. but it is nice to know that the animals receives a stunning electrical shock to render them unconscious - before their throats are cut ! Yes ! It is necessary to cut an animals throat to bleed it before the meat is processed, and our animals do not enjoy this prelude to death. The animals marshalled in the yard - waiting their turn - are well aware of the smell of death in the air. They roll their eyes and shake in fear.
If someone filmed the process of slaughtering animals in an Australian abattoir in this same confronting way many viewers would be outraged - and some would probably become vegetarian. Welcome to the real world ! It is the custom in many countries for families to buy an animal at the markets and slaughter it at home. It is normal to convey a sheep in the boot of a car for this purpose - and it is normal to put a large animal in the back of a truck with it's head over the tailboard - the better to drain the blood into the gutter when it's throat is cut.
No doubt we will be exhorted to petition the Australian government to order the end of the live sheep and cattle export trade. We tried that a year or so back - when a similar film showing caused the stopping of live exports to Indonesia. That nearly wrecked the Northern Territory cattle industry, put a lot of people out of work, caused a serious disruption to our good relations with our near neighbour - and achieved absolutely nothing !
Live cattle and sheep from other places replaced our exports and the Indonesians ordered their meat processors to tidy up procedures, but lack of refrigeration and the customs that prevail make the killing and consumption of meat fit within a short time frame in most third world countries. We should certainly petition to end handling that constitutes cruelty, but we need to keep in mind that reality means that the customs that prevail in other parts of the world are unlikely to change.
Animal liberation seems to be a theme that drives some people to excess. Egg farming by way of caged birds is by far the most economical way to farm hens, but it is not pleasant for the birds and it seems that many are prepared to pay a bit more to see the chooks released to be in the sun and scratch in the dirt. The practice of confining hogs in small cubicles has been outlawed in most states. We are constantly improving our farm practices - and we put pressure on overseas customers to adopt more humane handling methods.
But - there are limits to what we can achieve and the call to simply ban the live export of sheep and cattle is not realistic. The only consolation would be that the animals processed in the overseas markets we condemn would come from other places - and the "purists "would have the satisfaction that they are not Australian animals.
There is little sense in killing a valuable Australian export industry, if nothing is gained - and we simply hand a valuable export to other suppliers !
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