A note on animal welfare

Like many people across the nation, and indeed the world, we were disgusted to recently learn of yet another case of animal cruelty in the live export trade. We were saddened to hear the reports of extreme cruelty inflicted upon live cattle in Vietnam. And what makes this even more upsetting is that this is certainly not a new problem. For years, animal welfare organisations have been campaigning against cruel practices in the live export industry.  Leading the way in these campaigns has been one of our country’s largest animal protection agencies, Animals Australia.

 

Over the years, animal welfare organisations have done some incredible work exposing instances of animal cruelty throughout a number of animal industries, including (but not limited to) puppy mills, factory farms and live export. Another recent example of the great work of these groups is the exposé of live baiting in the Australian greyhound racing industry, which was lead by Animal Liberation Queensland and aided by Animals Australia and the RSPCA.

It is incredibly disappointing that the government and industry bodies are not able to ensure the humane treatment of animals within animal industries. When we allow self-regulation by people with vested interests in these industries, it comes as no surprise that animal welfare will suffer at the expense of financial profit.

Given that the government and industry bodies have failed to protect our animals, we cannot thank animal welfare groups enough for fighting for the humane treatment of these  beings. We hope that the attempts of parliament to pass “ag-gag” laws, which would prevent animal protection agencies from exposing acts of commercialised animal cruelty, never succeed.

To find out more about what you can do to help improve animal welfare visit www.animalsaustralia.org.

Dr Jess