And here we are again. Debating at what price do we accept the astonishing cruelty to and the torture of Australian animals.
When the ABC’s 4 Corners exposed the incredibly brutal treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs last year, the footage was incredibly distressing. There was a massive public outcry. How could this be allowed to happen? Following intense pressure from the community, from animal rights industry and from the media, the Government was forced to take action.
A temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia was put in place, until the Government could make arrangements for stricter rules and regulation to govern the treatment of our livestock being shipped to Indonesia for slaughter.
Perhaps naively, many of us presumed the issue had been ‘fixed’. We presumed that Australian livestock would now be slaughtered humanely and with dignity in Indonesia and in other countries to where our animals were exported.
We were so wrong.
A 4 Corners follow up, which aired last night investigated the events surrounding the absolutely horrific culling of 21,000 sheep in Pakistan. Video footage showed hundreds of sheep having their throats sawed crudely and mercilessly and then tossed into deep pits – many of them still alive.
The graphic images leave no doubt that those animals endured a terrifying ordeal and slow and agonising deaths. You can view the 4 Corners program in full here. Please be warned that the video is extremely distressing and you will never forget the images of those poor animals being tortured.