Dear Geoff Hutchison

Dear Geoff, (and anyone else of a open mind with hunger for facts & logic)

I'm glad that Live Export is getting a run on the Mainstream Media like your show, but as best as anyone can do, much of the smoke n mirrors of various interests can cloud important facts. Here's just a few.

 

 

1. Animals Australia is not an Animal Welfare group, its an Animal Rights/Animal Liberationist group. There's a large distinction with the latter having a very determined cult like culture. It is against all animal farms, animal farming & animal farmers and that's a fact it likes to hide. It is against food and any other products being derived from animal sources. It often applies human rights and transfers them illegitimately to animals to serve their purpose. It is not aiming for long term improvements in animal welfare between the paddock & the plate, its aim is to eliminate the animals from the paddock AND the plate.
2. I have never met a farmer or even heard of one who is in favour of or has even staggering difference towards animal cruelty. It is however a determined and deliberate tactic to use terms like blood money, murderers or phrases that suggest farmers are keen to make money off cruelty. That's a ethical judgement that just does not stack up. If we stick to facts not feelings we soon see this accusation for what it is, false, misleading and irrelevant. Its designed to go emotional to try & trump facts or lack of facts. We are not monsters, I reject the views or position of anyone that also holds or spreads that false view. It's intellectually corrupt & ethically wrong. I have no respect for those that allow that to go unchallenged. Its sloppy & lazy thinking from poisoned spoon feeders.
3. The 2500 deaths. I don't not the exact number but will call it 2500. I do not know of anyone who is ok with that death rate. I know of not one person. I wish the Animal Liberationists could point to the person who is fine with it. There is one clear yet deliberately hidden fact. As utterly disgusting, repulsive & unacceptable as the 2500 deaths were, it is thankfully a statistical outlier. IT IS NOT COMMON STANDARD PRACTICE.
   The Transit Mortality Rate figures clearly show an industry improving with a negative trendline in on board deaths. The facts are it's been going down for years and rarely goes above 0.7%. The industry loses huge amounts of money and with 2500 deaths someone has lost close to $250,000 but probably a lot more when you factor in loss of profit margin, the cost of the animals, freight cost and feed cost prior & during the trip. No one benefits, no one will be happy, no one enjoys this at all. The industry relies on the mortality rates being as close to zero as humanly possible.
4. With this being a statistical outlier we have to look at what action needs to be taken and against who. Animal Liberationists want a complete ban. This is again feelings over facts. You do not solve a problem by punishing all the compliant mainstream because of statistical outliers, no matter how repugnant & revulsive the outlier's result was. With this absurd logic extended we must now, due to the current Banking Royal Commission, abolish the entire Banking & Financial Sector due to the serious breaches by some banks. Is this how it works?
   No, we isolate the problem sources and deal with them directly for the problems they have caused & elevate regulation to prevent it reoccurring.
   
        Punish the offending outliers NOT the compliant majority. It is that simple.
5. When we look at Mortality Rates, aside from disgraceful outliers, the rate is very low. If we compare it to the very big, powerful Pet Industry we notice something very startling. Livex Mortality Rates are comparatively low. There are approximately 9.6 Million pets or companion animals in Australia. The RSPCA annually destroys approximately 250,000 unwanted pets a year. That's deaths that need not happen. Unnecessary deaths. That does not include unreported deaths by dog pounds, rangers and pest controllers. If ethically one death is appalling then all are. That mortality rate of the Pet Industry is then now 2.6% and likely higher, how much higher we don't know. And why is it companion animals and their mortality that is hidden ignored or omitted. Its hard to say but for some Liberationists the fact we generally don't eat pets means "they're not comparable" - That tells me the deaths aren't actually that important to them, its the consumption of meat that's the perceived greatest crime. Fact remains 0.7% versus 2.6+%
6. Live export into Indonesia is required because such a small percentage of consumers have electricity. In fact refrigeration ownership is just 24% in Indonesia. Only 32% of their rural  population has electricity. In bigger fact... 49,000,000 Indonesian citizens have no electricity at all. Add to this many people there have an aversion to frozen or chilled meat. Culturally the rejection is due to dodgy butchers have in the past used freezing and sealed packaging to hide spoiled or rancid meat. That can kill. The wet market isn't going away anytime soon and in the case of Indonesia, they don't want it too. Fresh & warm means they know what they get. That's not going away from at least 49 Million people so if we leave the trade, then live animals will have to be sourced from our competitors, which ironically are most further away from the market, requiring a longer sea voyage. I don't have data for the Middle East but one thing is for sure, the supposed boxed & chilled product won't replace the live trade unless it can land on the foreign consumers table for the same price. There is absolutely no data or suggestion that can be achieved. Its worth remembering if the trade is phased out & another phased in it has to be no penalty to producers or the consumers.
   
   Its early in the morning, I'll come back and add more later. There is much missed that needs to be covered. And yes I'll cite the sources. I'll cover what happens to the market were we to go fully Australian processed for boxed & chilled meat. It's a disaster waiting to happen.
   
      Facts not Feelings - Penalise the offending outliers NOT the compliant Majority.