LibGuides: VCE English Issues: Live Sheep Exports

Background

Australia’s history of live exports is more than two centuries old
The practice of live animal export is as old as the European colonisation of Australia.
The first arrival of animals that would later be exported from Australia, including sheep, cattle and goats, can be dated with unusual precision to January 1788.

Livestock exports
2017 fact sheet published by the Australian Government.
The livestock export industry is a major contributor to the Australian economy. It supports the livelihood of more than 10,000 people in rural and regional Australia who prepare and transport animals for export. In 2016–17 this industry contributed more than $1.6 billion to the Australian economy.

illustration: Matt Davidson

Live sheep exports are not worth the moral cost
"Meat became more expensive, but it was a price worth paying. Not every cost and benefit is financial."

How New Zealand banned the live export of sheep for slaughter 15 years ago
Australia's closest neighbours phased out the practice with little fanfare 15 years ago following a similarly ill-fated Middle Eastern voyage.

The live export trade is unethical. It puts money ahead of animals’ pain
Sheep are not iron ore or wheat. They are sentient beings who cannot protest against what we are doing to them, except by dying. We are handing them over to people who have no special concern for their well-being, on a ship far from the eyes of the media.
Can meat exports be made humane? Here are three key strategies
So what do we need to do to humanely sell Australia’s meat to the world? Can the meat be processed on our shores? And with many of Australia’s livestock destined for the Middle East or Indonesia, can religious slaughter requirements be met while avoiding unnecessary animal suffering?
Live sheep exports tarnish Australia’s reputation and should be stopped
If a farmer were caught subjecting animals on his or her property to the suffering endured by the sheep on the Emanuel Exports ship last August, they’d find themselves in court, perhaps in jail, and almost certainly banned from possessing animals in future.
When it’s an export company, it gets a permit for another shipment.
Australian farmers question the future of live sheep exports
The death of 2,400 Australian sheep from overcrowding, heat exhaustion and lack of food and water during live exports to the Middle East has lead to some farmers questioning whether the trade should be banned entirely.
Stop the cruelty but not the trade
Malcolm Turnbull attacks 'reckless' Labor plan to shut down live sheep exports.