After multiple viral social media videos and an explosive story on 60 Minutes Australia, Emanuel Exports, a live export company, has had its license suspended by the Western Australian government.
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources announced it had suspended the company’s license pending a full review of the company’s response to a show cause notice. Emanuel Exports, the company that controls about half the live sheep export industry, saw more than 2,400 sheep last year die on its ships from heat stress.
The company is currently under criminal and departmental investigation for allegations of overstocking, failing to provide sufficient food and water, not treating animal injury and illness, and accredited vets and “stockmen leaving vessels prior to unloading.
According to The Guardian, about 600,000 live sheep were exported from Australia to other countries in 2017, enduring harsh conditions aboard ships. And over the past 30 years, Australia’s live export industry has shipped more than 200 million animals to the Middle East. During this time, over 2.5 million animals have died in transit. Just this past April, the Australian people got a look inside those ships and were left outraged.
Obtained by trainee navigator Faisal Ullah and released to ABC and Animals Australia, the shocking undercover footage, captured in August, shows sheep crammed in dirty pens, panting from heat stress, and leaping over one another to gain access to food during transport to the Middle East.
The gut-wrenching video also reveals dead animals who had been “cooked alive by their warm wool piled up and thrown overboard, as well as newborn lambs on board, despite a federal ban on transporting lambs and pregnant ewes to the Middle East between May and October.
Watch the heartbreaking footage.
Similarly, cows, pigs, and chickens around the world endure grueling conditions during transport, including all weather extremes and overcrowded trailers.
A Mercy For Animals investigation into Canada’s transportation industry revealed shocking animal abuse and neglect, including “downed pigs unable to walk and suffering with open wounds while being painfully shocked by workers in full view of government inspectors; pigs who died during transport; sick and injured animals repeatedly kicked, violently beaten, dragged, and left to suffer without proper veterinary care; and workers using bolt cutters to break the sensitive, nerve-filled tusks of male pigs without any painkillers.
In June, MFA partnered with numerous animal rights organizations in Brazil to protest the export of live animals. Legislation supported by MFA Brazil that aims to prohibit the export of live cows for slaughter purposes in the state of São Paulo could be voted on as early as next week.
Whether they’re cows on export ships from São Paulo, pigs on transport trucks in Canada, or sheep on export ships from Australia, we all have the power to end the transport torture of animals.
By leaving animals off your plate, you’re ending support of an industry that sees animals as cargo instead of the sensitive and intelligent beings they are. Click here to get started.
