What price profit?

In Adelaide, several hundred people crowded onto the steps of Parliament House to chants of "Shame Australia Shame" and "What price profit?". Speakers included Tammy Franks (Greens MLC), Nick Xenophon (Federal Indepent Senator) and Inspector Simon Richards (RSPCA). Photos by Glen Alderson.

The posters graphically showed the cruelty inflicted on animals in Indonesian slaughterhouses and during last year's Festival of Sacrifice in the Middle East. Animals suffer the terror of being wrestled to the ground and having their legs tied. Their throat is cut while they are fully conscious and they suffer extreme pain as they slowly bleed to death. Photos by Glen Alderson

The footage of slaughter in Indonesia showed a callous disregard for animal welfare as animals were sadistically beaten while they lay on the ground. The same attitude has been documented for years in the Middle East, as sheep are dragged by the legs and ears and stuffed into car boots in stiffling heat. Cattle in Egypt had their tendons slashed prior to slaughter. There are no laws to protect animals from such abuse. Posters by Animals Australia

The Festival of Sacrifice in the Middle East is a family affair, as animals are cruelly slaughtered in the street. The gutters run red with blood. If you look at the photos below of a young bull from Australia suffering a terrifying and painful death, you'll see children in the background of the left photo. In the right photo the slaughterer is obviously proud of his work. These people do not see anything wrong with what they're doing, which is why a crash training course by Meat and Livestock officials is not going to change anything. As soon as Australian officials leave, everything goes back to normal. Photos Lyn White, Animals Australia

The answer is to increase the number of Halal slaughterhouses in Australia so that animals are handled and killed according to Australian standards. We have no control over what happens to animals once they are overseas. Not only that, thousands upon thousands of animals have died during export, some because they just stop eating, some in disasters such as ship fires, extreme weather and failure of the ventilation system to that animals die miserably due to heat stress.

 There are already Halal slaughterhouses in Australia with religious officials present. Stunning has been accepted as long as does not mark the carcass (electrical or non-penetrating captive bolt stunning). There is already a robust trade in chilled and frozen meat to both the Middle East and Indonesia.

However, Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig is already in Indonesia trying to restart this cruel trade. HE IS NOT EVEN INSISTING THAT ANIMALS BE STUNNED BEFORE THEIR THROAT IS CUT. Now is the perfect time to plan for a future without live export. Please keep writing to the Minister urging him to make the suspension of the trade into a total ban. Remember that New Zealand banned live export of animals in 2007.

Email him at http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=84N Send postal mail to The Hon Joe Ludwig, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests, c/- Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600.