SAVE THE
SHEEP
www.wagny.net/Egypt NEW 18 June
2007
http://www.liveexport-indefensible.com/eupdate/
In late December 2006, Animals Australia investigators were in
Egypt...
...filming thousands of defenseless Australian sheep being dragged,
bound with rope, shoved into car boots, tied onto car roofs, and
thrown trussed on their backs into trucks.
In Cairo, investigators documented terrified sheep having their
throats cut while fully conscious. This is normal, widespread
practice in abattoirs and private homes throughout the Middle
East.
The Howard Government and Australia's live exporterssend millions
of animals each year to this fate.
As a result, millions of people in the Middle East believe
Australians approve of this brutal treatment of animals due to our
willingness to export animals to their countries.
The cruelty and suffering Animals Australia documented in Egypt
directly contravenes the 2006 formal agreement between Egypt and
the Howard Government to treat Australian animals in accordance
with international standards. This 'Memorandum of Understanding'
was triumphantly publicized to reassure all Australians that the
welfare of Australian animals would be protected.
www.liveexport-indefensible.com/eupdate/video.html
Watch "Live Exports -- Indefensible": filmed in December 2006,
this moving documentary shows the handling of Australian sheep
exported to Egypt.
The Howard Government would never even have known that Egypt had
flagrantly breached the agreement had Animals Australia not
undertaken this investigation.
The Howard Government has seen the documented evidence. And now,
despite knowing the agreement is worthless, it will continue to
allow the export of Australian animals to an horrific fate in
Egypt.
Australia's live export industry and the Howard Government claim
that they can help change terrible animal practices in the Middle
East. These hypocritical statements are designed to protect profits
generated by animal cruelty and to keep the truth from Australian
citizens and farmers. They are made by the very same people who
condone the trade responsible for the horrendous deaths of over 2
million animals on live export ships.
A few isolated training courses will NEVER counter the belief held
throughout Egypt and the entire Middle East that Australians
approve of local slaughter and handling practices.
If Australia wants to send the message to the region that cruelty
to animals is unacceptable, then the answer is simple. Stop sending
our animals. This would send the resounding message to all corners
of the Middle East that animal welfare matters.
Australian chilled and frozen meat exports to the Middle East and
Egypt represent a more humane alternative. Chilled exports to the
region are already more profitable than live exports and are
growing each year.
This is not about animal rights -- it is about animal wrongs.
The Howard Government and Australia's live exporters have blood on
their hands.
Sign these important letters
Add your name to important letters to Australian politicians who
can end this terrible trade, and call on Egyptian Ministers to pass
animal protection laws.
Spread the word
Don't let 'out of sight' mean 'out of mind' -- send this important
message to your friends and family.
Fund further investigations in the Middle
East
Crucial investigations are made possible by donations. With your
help, we will continue to reveal the truth and hold industry
accountable for this indefensible trade.
Order a free action pack
Get equipped and get your free live export action pack from Animals
Australia which contains campaign leaflets, stickers, videos and
petitions.
For more information about live exports, visit
www.LiveExport-Indefensible.com
or phone Animals Australia on toll-free: 1800 888 584
----- Original
Message -----
From:
Mark
Johnson
To:
linda.furness1
Sent:
Saturday,
February 24, 2007 11:12 AM
Subject:
Fw:
New announcement: Australian Vets Join Call to End Live
Exports
Media
Release
Sent: Saturday,
February 24, 2007
Australian Vets
Join Call to End Live Exports
The release of new video
evidence showing extreme cruelty towards
Australian sheep in
the Middle East has ignited fresh calls for an end
to
Australia's live export trade, with the Australian
Veterinary Association
the latest organization to demand the
trade to Egypt stops.
AVA President Kersti Seksel described the
handling, transport and
slaughter practices documented by
Animals Australia investigators in Egypt
as "outright
cruelty".
The graphic and disturbing footage shows men
throwing trussed Australian
sheep into car boots, strapping
them to car roof racks and dragging them by
their legs
through the blood of dying animals before cutting their
throats
whilst they're fully conscious, a practice that is
illegal in Australia.
In another scene, three bound and clearly distressed sheep
are seen being
tied onto the roof rack of a vehicle and
transported through heavy traffic.
Australian sheep were also
filmed escaping from the back of a utility and
being chased
across a major Cairo roadway. Investigators also
documented
local cattle having their leg tendons slashed to
disable them prior to
slaughter - proving that such practices
are routine and acceptable in Egypt.
The footage proves that
the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), designed to protect
Australian animals exported to Egypt and signed by the
Australian
and Egyptian Governments, has been seriously breached.
The Howard Government initiated the MOU after an earlier
investigation in Egypt by Animals
Australia (in January 2006)
showed barbaric treatment of sheep and cattle
during
unloading, land transportation and slaughter.
As a result of
that evidence (which included images of cattle having
their
leg tendons cut and eyes stabbed in a Cairo abattoir
where over one million
Australian cattle have been
slaughtered since 1995), Australia's live trade
with Egypt
was suspended in February 2006.
In October 2006 Agriculture
Minister Peter McGauran publicly lauded the
signing of the
MOU between Australia and Egypt in his bid to reassure
an
increasingly shocked and outraged Australian public and
media that
Australian animals would be treated humanely in
Egypt.
During this latest four-day investigation, carried out in
late December ,
Animals Australia investigators,
returned to Cairo to document the
treatment of the first
shipment of Australian sheep sent to Egypt since the
signing
of the MOU and resumption of trade with Egypt.
Yesterday,
despite the release of further stark evidence that
Australian
animals are still being seriously mistreated in
Egypt (a country with no
animal welfare laws), Agriculture
Minister Peter McGauran pledged to
continue issuing the
export permits needed by Australian livestock
exporters
wanting to sell to Egypt.
Minister
McGauran's decision to turn a blind eye to Egypt's
complete
disregard for the MOU has stunned and outraged
leading international animal
protection groups. The World Society
for the Protection of Animals (WSPA),
Compassion in World
Farming (CIWF) and national bodies Animals Australia and RSPCA
Australia have united in their condemnation of the
government's
decision.
"The Howard Government's
decision not to halt exports to Egypt is
tantamount to aiding
and abetting animal cruelty," Animals Australia
investigator
Lyn White said.
"This decision proves that public statements
about animal welfare are
nothing more than rhetoric designed
to appease an alarmed Australian public
and to hide guilty
consciences.
"It also fully exposes the unholy alliance
between the Howard Government
and Australia's live exporters.
The Howard Government is nothing more than a
voice-piece for
this industry's propaganda machine.
"We have now been given
a true indication of how important ensuring the
welfare of
Australian animals is to the Howard government. Minster
McGauran
would not even have known that his MOU was breached
had Animals Australian not undertaken this
investigation. MOU's with Middle Eastern countries
are the single factor that the Howard government can point to
reassure the Australian public that another Cormo Express
can't occur. Now we know they are worthless."
Ms
White dismissed as "a complete non-argument" claims by Australia's
live
exporters and the Howard Government that - by remaining
involved in live
exports to Egypt - they have an opportunity
to improve animal welfare
standards in that
country.
"A few isolated training courses will never counter
the damaging belief
that's now widely held throughout the
entire Middle East that Australians,
including farmers,
approve of local slaughter and handling practices.
"By
disregarding breaches of an agreement to treat animals humanely,
the
Howard Government has sent a clear message to the
Egyptians that animal
welfare is not a serious
matter.
"At this significant stage in this shameful trade's
history, the Howard
government and live exporters have as
much blood on their hands as the
slaughtermen in
Egypt." concluded Ms White
To view and download
hi-res photographs from the Egyptian
investigation
visit www.liveexport-indefensible.com/media.
Footage
from the investigation can be viewed at
http://www.liveexport-indefensible.com/video.htm
Annalise Shows
the 'Naked Truth' Behind Live Sheep Exports
in New PETA Ad
Annalise Braakensiek Ad Lying nude and cuddling a rescued
lamb
alongside the tagline “The Naked Truth: Lambs Suffer and Die in
Live Export,”
model and actor Annalise Braakensiek appears in a brand-new ad for
PETA.
“I’ll gladly shed my clothes if it will help shed light on the
cruelty of live sheep exports,”
says Annalise, who is perennially named as one of the sexiest women
in the world.
“I urge Australia to heed the call of thousands of people around
the world by banning live exports.”
Annalise has appeared in three films and on more than a dozen TV
shows in Australia and the U.K.
She has graced the covers of several of the world’s leading women’s
magazines and has been featured in Rolling Stone, Australian Style,
GQ, Marie Claire, and Vogue, among others.
Now, the model is using her good looks to draw attention to the
cruel live-export trade.
Each year in Australia, approximately 6 million sheep are disposed
of by being shipped thousands of miles mired in their own waste on
open-decked, multitiered ships, through all weather extremes, to
the Middle East and North Africa.
Shipboard mortality is high, and for every sheep who dies, many
more become ill or are injured.
Sick or injured sheep are often ground up alive in mincers or
dumped overboard to drown or be devoured alive by sharks.
Those who do survive the trip arrive in countries where animal
welfare standards are non-existent and are slaughtered while
completely conscious—a practice that is illegal in Australia.
You Can Help
Write to Australian Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran
to ask that he put an immediate end to the live export of sheep
from Australia:
The Honourable Peter McGauran, MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Forestry
GPO Box 858
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
+61 0413 601 303 (fax)
peter.mcgauran.mp@aph.gov.au
See the horrors of live export for yourself.
Watch PETA’s video “Australia’s Secret Shame”
to see for yourself what happens to sheep down under.
Find
out how you can help save
sheep by telling your community
about the cruelty of Australian wool.
