"It’s mustering season in northern Australia; stock camps are busy with the bellowing, bulldust and sweat of cattle being herded by horse and helicopter, and trucked by road trains, criss-crossing thousands of kilometres of red dirt and road to ports and abattoirs.

These cattle face the longest journey of any Australian commodity—on average close to 1000km, and sometimes up to 2500km to get to east coast abattoirs."

for Australians to have the fresh meat they demand our cattle travel vast distances by truck . 

Not individual stalls and attended by cowboys as are those that supply the fresh meat trade to Indonesia our biggest customer and a short distance from Darwin ..,

Jobs are urgently required for NT Pete. Lots of people, not a lot of work. Aboriginals are or were good on the land.  Setup abattoirs on the inner lands for work for them and others. 

Chilled and Frozen meat doesnt mind the miles it travels or how rough the journey as ong as cold.

There are a lot of plants been built to process this down south.

Build them farther north in places where people are crying out for work. Gov is spending money upgrading roads to Darwin and ports for live exports - switch bits where needed for new plants then from there to ports or  where needed.

New Zealand started this around 15-20 years back sell to ME countries who we are told,  wont buy unless they can kill themselves in their barbaric 7th Century way. And they wont stop. We have 12 Halal abattoirs here.

That is a big mistake letting them kill animals without making sure they are unconscious.

We dont like to think of death and hope quietly we, one day just go to sleep and dont wake up.

Well that is what I wish on the animals who give up their lives so we can live.

Surely not too much for humans to understand but first those humans have to be civilized and even though 21st Century far too many are not yet that far in evolution. Reason why their countries are backward too and we have not got to pander to them.

And Indonesia says not got fridges. Well can spend 8 billion on new aircraft and showed them off recently.  So can manage to set up plants/stores in districts where the frozen meats or chilled can be sold daily.  Loan small or large business to set up and make up jobs lost in abattoirs.

You will have to educate the Audtrslian public first who prefer fresh meat.

'Pyramid Hill' was known to be one of Australia's most notorious puppy factories. Operating under a veil of secrecy, for years puppies were pumped out of this facility and sold to unwitting buyers. It took the brave and painstaking actions of our highly skilled investigators to obtain the very first images from inside this hell hole. Without these critical images, Pyramid Hill would still be in operation today.

Based on Animals Australia's evidence, RSPCA Victoria was able to mount a major investigation of their own, leading to a landmark court case. Yesterday, the owners of Pyramid Hill puppy factory pled guilty to 240 charges of animal cruelty."

They should lock these owners in the cages they kept their dogs locked in .... digusting creeps

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/pyramid-hill-puppy-factory-update.php

Pete since you're so into believing print over opinion - and having searched just now for the Tasmania Budget - found this. Makes my case for me quite nicely and so keeping it for data and ammunition. Sending it to MPs etc. Maybe Abby can do the same along with all the caring people here. Cut and paste into your own documents then can send it by email to your own MP State and Federals and Senators etc

Makes the case for making more profit which is main concern of governments for frozen chilled than live exports and from a person who holds respect of his peers.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/politics/talking-point-exactly-how-much-cruelty-does-1b-buy/story-fnpp9w4j-1227373287252

Confronted with a picture of a Vietnamese abattoir worker about to bring down a sledgehammer on a steer’s skull, Tony Abbott’s messenger remarked it was “regrettable but the people of Vietnam require their protein. Exports will not stop”.

The terrified animal in the photograph, roped by the neck to a post, Mr Joyce said, had been “leaked” from the intended legal abattoir in Vietnam to a smaller family-run slaughter house.

For Joyce it gets worse. He vowed that if any investigation found those guilty, prosecutions would follow.

Where? Is he suggesting we send a legal team to Vietnam and commandeer their courtrooms, or does he intend to prosecute the Australian exporters, who can rightfully claim they are not to blame when animals are “leaked” to primitive killing sheds.

And so it goes. The cruel live export trade continues.

Trade unions, who in the 1990s demanded animals be humanely slaughtered in Australia, now appear to have yielded to the live animal export lobby.

But many agricultural economists believe building abattoirs in northern Australia could all but end the need for live exports. They argue a sheep processed domestically for meat is worth 20 per cent more to the Australian economy than a live export.

Unsubstantiated figures, but surely worth investigation.

Is it simplistic to suggest the Muslim nations send people to those abattoirs to ensure animals are slaughtered according to their religious beliefs?

That aside, both Liberal and Labor shamefully tug their forelocks to an industry steeped in cruelty.

Labor Senator Lisa Singh’s latest media release on the exports states: “Labor will continue to hold the Abbott Government and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Barnaby Joyce, to account regarding the welfare of animals in the live exports industry.”

Given the latest snapshots from Vietnam, Senator Singh must immediately arrange a latte with Mr Joyce.

UN Comtrade figures show Australia is the world’s largest exporter of live sheep and fourth largest of live cattle.

ESCAS, the Government’s Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System, notes that of the 1.3 million cattle exported from Australia, a mere 1638 “mortalities” were recorded. Of the 2.2 million sheep shipped out last year, ESCAS records show 16,147 mortalities.

Given the heat and head-to-tail conditions on board, the industry could argue those deaths are an acceptable occupational hazard.

What ESCAS fails to mention is the fate awaiting these animals providing they survive the tortuous voyage across the equator.

As news director for a Tasmanian TV network, I oversaw much of the “vision” destined to go to air that night.

We had an arrangement with Channel Nine which sent us pictures on request.

On at least one occasion we were forced to “censor” the images of the scenes which unfolded when sheep were unloaded in Saudi Arabia.

Clearly, the crew had mates on the docks, who, to pacify the animals, belted some with lumps of wood before dragging the sheep by its hind leg and tossing it in a car boot.

Hardly images for Australians enjoying a lamb casserole in a comfy TV chair.

It comes to this — exporter/farmer versus a small group of animal activist zealots hellbent on destroying an industry which reaps more than $1 billion a year and gives work to 9000 Australians — an impressive return for our national economy.

But here is where the practice becomes emotive.

Should any animal capable of feeling pain be treated this way?

Compare the labradors and white tufts of fluff we see paraded on leashes along our streets. To their owners, they are cherished as you would a small child.

For sheep and cattle destined for the gangplank it seems a perceived lack of intelligence is their curse.

Either way Barnaby Joyce will see to it that the people of Vietnam will not be denied their protein.

Tasmanian journalist Hugh McLean has worked in Thailand at a Bangkok daily newspaper, Melbourne’s The Age, and with WIN TV as news director.
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Figures may well be unsubstantiated but reckon true and also worth more than actual profit on one sheep as suggested in article. as it makes jobs here too for people as well.

And Pete - the bit about the cowboys driving cattle to markets well they dont ill treat them either - as that would make their worth less but also they are not the nasty creatures like some of these humans overseas seem to be.

My thoughs on animal cruelty are continuosly posted onto the Politicians ... thanks for putting up the post Val .. unfortunately most humans are self centered and only think about themselves.