Livex Trade & The RSPCA's Most Unfortunate Position.

 

 

In the whole Live Export Debate there's the horrid & unacceptable deaths of livestock followed by the other casualty, the truth.

I have not met one primary producer who is ok with a shipment that lost 2400+ sheep due to over heating or any other reason. I also know that as repulsive as the 2400+ deaths were, we can be thankful at least for the fact that such events are statistical outliers and NOT standard practice amongst the compliant majority of the trade.

These facts and others lead many of us to say, "Penalise The Offending Outliers Not The Compliant Majority"

So what do we expect from ill informed activists. Not much but we expect a whole lot more out of the RSPCA. Here's an example, note the cute doe eyed but completely irrelevant dog holding a photo of a pen of sheep, because...well no reason other than to solicit emotions that gather support.

Facts not Feelings? Not On Your Life!

 

And what exactly was the con, the lie that the RSPCA were pointing to? No less than an "opinion piece" by Mark Riley in The West Australian. After spending the first third of the opinion piece winding up the emotion spin lever he finally arrives at a fact with a data point.
( https://thewest.com.au/opinion/live-export-to-middle-east-based-on-a-lie-ng-b88840086z )

"Before this week, any mortality rate below 2 per cent was deemed acceptable." Trouble is Mark plucked this figure out of the air. Fact is, the mortality rate rarely goes over 0.7% so he's nearly 3 times higher. And in case anyone is wondering, here's a data point he missed, ignored, omitted or was too sloppy & lazy to find. OK that's not entirely fair, he may have been just too damn eager to write pre-suppositional piece that fits the narrative he's in love with.

 

Oh dear Mark you're not exactly looking like a reliable witness, please get out of jury duty too if it comes up, you will need to set aside bias and make judgements on facts.
But of course, we can look at other data sources, see what we can come up with.

Wow Look there Mark Riley & RSPCA - It seems like there's another statistical fact omitted, ignored or generally undiscovered. It seems the trade has a steadily falling trend line in Transit Mortality in the last 7+ years. So the Livex Trade has been improving.

I note at this point when I have shown these facts activists, yes including a Tweeter from RSPCA will say that deaths do not represent the suffering of the animals that survive. That is in fact kinda true. If a ship however had a 50% mortality rate due to excessive heat & little or no water its fair to assume the surviving 50% didn't have a very good time of it. There is a connecting link.
So if the mortality numbers are declining it means things are getting better. That is a definite fact.

"Oh but the mortality rate doesn't show the suffering of the survivors"
Yes but it doesn't show how many were smiling & doing cart wheels either.
You cannot argue from an absent negative. It doesn't show what it doesn't show. If it doesn't show something, the conclusion is inconclusive because there's no facts to judge.
But we do know when the mortality rate falls, the rest of the shipment has a greater likelihood of gaining weight per head. They do not gain weight whilst under distress.

When you have some facts, please speak up.

Now we'll leave Mr Riley aside. This shoddy article worthy of a bit of time on ABC's MediaWatch or perhaps a Q&A Fact Check is not the reason the RSPCA is in a Most Unfortunate Position.

There's this...a Sydney Morning Herald article by Rachel Browne on June 6th 2010
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/truth-about-cats-and-dogs-250000-killed-every-year-20100605-xlr4.html

Transit Mortality Rate in Livex is around 0.7% - This number is still unacceptable for the RSPCA or at least one of its internal voices. Its just too high a number and the Live Trade has to be banned.

Ok...9,600,000 million pets or companion animals in Australia. Annually 250,000 cats & dogs are put down. That's 2.7%

That's higher than Mr Riley's "2%"
It's also nearly 4 times higher than Livex's "0.7%
That's just "cats & dogs" doesn't include all other animals.

Question - WHEN IS THE RSPCA CALLING FOR AN ALL OUT BAN ON PETS & COMPANION ANIMALS IN AUSTRALIA?

Repeating that article of Rachel Browne's was dated June 6th 2010.
The RSPCA has had nearly 8 years to shut the pet industry down. Now mortality rates are only one indicator, they don't show the suffering of all the others not put down.

Using the RSPCA's own stats, it received 45,256 dogs in 2015-16 and put down 5872 dogs or nearly 13%
Using the RSPCA's own stats, it received 55,570 cats in 2015-16 and put down 16,205 cats or just over 29%
( https://www.rspca.org.au/sites/default/files/RSPCA%20Australia%20Annual%20Statistics%202015-2016%20.pdf )

That's a lot of killing. Perhaps every single one of them is justified. Perhaps that number is ok. Or perhaps in view of the fact its so much worse than Live Export we need to close down and abolish all pet ownership. Ban the entire Pet Trade.

In the 2015-2016 Financial Year there were 65,714 cruelty complaints. That's the action the Society is supposed to PREVENT.
In the same year there were 250 successful prosecutions.
So the RSPCA killed 100,826 cats & dogs (no we're not counting the other animals) and there were 250 successful prosecutions with 1963 charges laid. Curiously Victoria alone had the bulk of the charges laid, 1126. Not saying they're more cruel in Victoria, there are more people there...and there's very little Live export compared to WA.

No it seems on death rates alone the RSPCA should push for abolition of the massive Pet Industry before the Live Export Industry. I guess the Pet Industry is too big & powerful...or hang on let's tweak & use the Ban Live Export activist's battle cry...

"The RSPCA refuses to Ban The Pet Industry because they make money, blood money off the misery of the Pet Industry."

Come on RSPCA, if your job is to "prevent" cruelty, using your Live Export (non)Logic there is no room to move, there is no alternative...you must push for a full abolition of all pet & companion animals. Its a lot worse than the Livex Trade.

Animals Australia on the other hand, puts down zero animals. Rescues & rehomes zero animals. Put zero animals in its care. It does take photos & footage of anything to do with animal farming in the hope of closing it down. They are Animal Liberationists NOT animal welfare people.
Think they must be building numbers in the RSPCA.

Animals Australia? Yes...and here's their co-founder Peter Singer. His philosophy is that which he himself is devising. Be scared. This is a glimpse of the Politically Correct Moral & Fact Vacuum ahead of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKDv3uhqqTI&t=23s


LATE EDIT & ADDITION (22 July 2018)

This added bit is due to the Katanning meeting where best estimates are between 1000 & 1500 people attended. I spoke with one on the organisers and didn't think to ask if they had an official attendance number as people were all signing in, but he mentioned the number being around 1200.

Points to remember, there was a large police presence and I feel sorry for them being forced to roll up and wet nurse 1200 harmless non violent pro animal welfare producers. I spoke to one of the policemen and said at least he'll have a quiet day and if they were involved in any arrest today it'd be helping with a cardiac arrest. He said no worries "...we can help with that".

Note that, even the impartial policemen was there to help. I hope the police stationed streets away which apparently included riot equipped officers had a few newspapers & magazines to read. I appreciate their service as dead boring and wasted as it was.

I was disappointed in the minister as she skirted issues, gave tactical replies instead of answers and wandered off into la-la land on a bluff-the-crowd exercise a few times and got caught out. Rabbiting on about the need for dual purpose sheep and better breeding outcomes to produce a different type of sheep. Great idea, exactly what the industry has been doing since the sheep first hit Australia soil. But then she once also said farmers need to turn to spreading compost instead of fertilisers on broad acre crops...not one to understand soil science hidden within a soil test or leaf test result I guess.

Looking at Plan B as she kept saying is fine, I'm good with that but she's sticking with WALabor pre-election policy platform which clearly stated "transitioning the industry to chilled"
It's darkened stealth language for Ban Live Export. We need both Live & Chilled. She says Labor is not about closing the trade, but her actions, platform and words speak volumes otherwise.

As Barnaby pointed out, if we ban live export & deny the likes of Qatar (and Kuwait) Live Sheep they will halt all our chilled from entering the market. We will lose 2 export meat trades because that will be their reaction to the offence we will have caused them by denying them food security. Live will most likely be sourced from Somalia & Sudan who have no ESCAS type regulations to ensure Animal Welfare standards at all. It will be an Animal Welfare disaster here with stranded unsaleable stock & in the Middle East where all progress to modernised standards will be thrown out.

Or they'll source from South America which means an extra 4-5 weeks on the water. To do that economically there will be no 30% reduction in stocking rates. It will be a total loss making exercise with or without zero deaths.

This also plugs into the intellectually bankrupt argument that we can jump over to chilled as New Zealand banned live export. Actually NZ hasn't banned live export at all, they just provide very little to that trade at all. They have a permit system not a ban. Comparing NZ to the WA trade is comparing apples and Toyotas.

The Media was asked a question at the meeting but no one from the media stepped up.
To paraphrase, how is it that the majority of recent LSS shipments are 99.7% successful, they are humane, compliant & cruelty free and when stock footage of Live Export is needed for a TV story they ALWAYS use footage from the appalling Awassi. One of the most appalling, horrifying and unacceptable events in Live export. Now, still an outlier of course but none the less shocking.
Why do the media outlets use footage that is definitely NOT representative of Live Export as it is right now?
Can they stop now please?

This is an attack from a religious worldview. Barnaby is 100% correct it is a group of religious zealots and sheep is not the aim, all animal production & consumption is their target.

What can you do? Well I could tell you to join a Farmer Lobby Group, there's 2 main ones in WA but that suits some farmers & not others. Some for good reason some not, but consider doing it. Other option is a little simpler and a little more straight forward.

Join a political party and become quite vocal within the tent. No you won't get your way on everything, but you get your say on anything and yes, sometimes the most political place is within a political party. Thing is, you will get faster, quicker & easier access to MPs.

Looking at the Katanning meeting I'll list the MPs I saw.
Federals...
Barnaby Joyce MHR (Nat)
Rick Wilson MHR (Lib)
Senator Slade Brockman (Lib)

WA Parliament...
Alannah McTiernan MLC (Lab) Minister for Ag
Peter Watson MLA (Lab) Speaker of the House
Mia Davies MLA (Nats) Leader of the WA Nationals
Peter Rundle MLA (Nats)
Colin DeGrussa MLC (Nats)
Rick Mazza MLC (SFFP)

Worth mentioning David Littleproud MHR (Nats) Federal minister for Ag was coming but due to a G20 Agriculture Summit in Washington couldn't come & he asked for a date change so he could. Sadly it was very late in the peace so he had to send an apology.

So really? Join a political party?
Yes. Just pick one you think represents Agriculture best and join. When you send in your cheque add a note that you're joining because you want a fair outcome for Live Export that genuinely represents the Farming Economy and that you're prepared to shop around for a party at membership renewal time.

If you hate politics be aware, if your join a political party that may not change.
If you think changes are slow, if you join a political party that won't change.
If you hate not getting your way, if you join a political party that happens for sure.

But if you don't join a political party you are not only outside the tent, your miles from the tent door. You won't become a mover & shaker that gets results within minutes, mostly you'll become a small tooth on a large wheel inside a bigger machine. But those of you who are croppers with machinery or have had some background in motorsport you'll know the difference between winning & losing may just be the presence or absence of a small $2.00 part.

The political parties that represent the bush well usually do so on a tight, very tight 2nd hand shoe string budget. If they gather a few members and bolster their coffers a little, well things get easier. Noticeable is execs & MPs within a party sit up & take notice when there's a membership surge and generally want to know why & what aspects they need to cover to keep those members.

Political solutions are very much chip away at the stone with a wooden chisel sometimes, but it's better than shouting at the wind and sooner or later, things turn the way of the smaller parties that have maintained the fair and right path. They can get results. Often the bigger parties will revise history to claim all credit but a win is a win.

Yes it seems counter intuitive to join a political party but consider doing it. For the price of less than one export wether you are contributing and you don't have to get any more involved in the party machine than you want to. If you like, just keep it local branch centred but if you have some skin in the game, get some fist & bootstrap in as well.

Just be sure to contact the party of your choice, tell them you're pro Agriculture, pro Animal Welfare and pro Live Export and you're considering joining. You will have their attention and they will listen.