LIVE EXPORT MUST BE SHUT DOWN AND FACTORY FARMING RADICALLY OVERHAULED

You don't have to be an animal liberationist or an activist to have compassion for animals. Well at least you shouldn't have to be.



Most of us at some stage of our lives own a much loved pet, like a dog, cat, budgerigar, or horse, and unless we are in a tiny minority of people who abuse family pets, we love and dote on them and do everything to look after them. We don't brutally torture and kill them.



So why does the majority of the population in Australia think it is okay for livestock animals to be abused, tortured and killed inhumanely, or at the very least, turn a blind eye to such inconvenient truths in their own mind and brush it off as "no big deal" ?



Sadly, the majority of Australians, particularly in rural areas, have been conditioned to think over many years that inhumane animal agriculture is okay because livestock animals are only livestock - they are not family pets.



In no way am I promoting the idea that animal agriculture should be completely eliminated.



Mainly because I know that there are far too many political and cultural obstacles to allow that, and besides, eating meat, especially fish, in moderate amounts does have some significant nutritional benefits.



But that doesn't excuse the cruelty and torture which Australian livestock animals are being subjected to, thanks to current factory farming practises and the live export trade.



What is all going on within some rogue abattoirs on Australian soil, and the ships transporting our livestock overseas to a macabre death somewhere in Asia or the Middle East, is horror movie stuff. It isn't just unacceptable, it is evil and sadistic.



As far as animal agriculture goes, we have to get back to basics in Australia, we have to dismantle factory farming and we need to outlaw live export holus bolus. It has to be redefined.



If Halal methods of animal slaughter prove to be an obstacle - too bad.



Livestock animals, especially pigs and cows, are very intelligent and emotional. If they must die to keep animal agriculture going then they must be killed using the most humane means possible.



That doesn't include having their throat slashed, being killed alive in boiling water or electrocuting them.


Let's all draw a few new lines in the sand about what is acceptable with animal agriculture and speak out against what isn't.