Department of Agriculture and Water Resources staff have indicated they are fielding inquiries from exporters seeking to ship horses and donkeys from Australia for slaughter in overseas markets.

The issue was raised in response to questions from Victorian senator Derryn Hinch at recent Senate Estimates hearings in Canberra.

In response to the Senator’s questions DAWR staff confirmed they are preparing advice for the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources to consider extending the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) to cover horses and donkeys.

ESCAS regulations, introduced in the wake of the 2011 suspension of cattle exports to Indonesia, are designed to make exporters responsible for protecting the welfare of exported livestock through to, and including, the point of slaughter in overseas markets.

Dr Narelle Clegg, DAWR assistant secretary, live animal exports, said ESCAS applies only to livestock, so horses or donkeys exported for slaughter could not currently be controlled under ESCAS.

Dr Clegg said the department has only received inquiries about horse and donkey exports so far, not an official application.

“The race horses, the breeding animals, the pet ponies, the zoo animals that are exported would not be affected by this,” Dr Clegg said.

“Just as happens with all other species it would only be for equines that are intentionally being exported for slaughter.”

Senator Hinch asked if the department has received an application for donkeys to be bred in Australia and exported in China for slaughter there, where their hides would be “used for anti-ageing cosmetic purposes”.

Dr Clegg said the DAWR had not received such an application.

If the Department did receive an application for the export of horses and donkeys for slaughter, it would have to be assessed, she said.

“If we received an application for horses for slaughter, we would assess it, because whether they are for slaughter or not is not a consideration at the moment in export legislation,” Mr Clegg said.

“In Australia we slaughter horses at abattoirs now. We slaughter horses for human consumption in Australia now. What we are requiring exporters to do, if the policy is approved, would be to make sure the arrangements in place met international animal welfare standards for the handling, transport and slaughter of any equine species that was exported for slaughter.”

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon questioned why the Department was allocating resources to the issue when it had only received what sounded like ‘loose inquiries’, not an official export application.

Dr Clegg said the Department was working to ensure it had “something ready to go in the event that an application actually arrives”.

DAWR secretary Daryl Quinlivan added the matter was still subject to the Government agreeing to apply the ESCAS regime to horse or donkey exports, which it had not yet done.

ALEC: “Members are neither seeking nor supportive of any such trade commencing”

The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council issued a short statement in response to the Senate Estimates debate, saying its members are not supportive of any such trade commencing.

“ALEC is aligned with community expectations regarding mandatory welfare standards for the export of any Australian livestock,” the statement said.

“A live export trade in Australian horses and donkeys does not currently exist, and ALEC members are neither seeking nor supportive of any such trade commencing.”

‘Fewer cattle die on ships than on the rangelands each year’

In response to a comment by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon that “the ESCAS system has failed”, Liberals Senator and veterinarian Dr Chris Back said the evidence suggested otherwise.

Fewer cattle died on ships than on the rangelands each year in Northern Australia, he said.

“It is safer, on the basis of that statistic, to be on a ship than it is to be on the rangeland.”

He said annual mortality percentages of exported cattle were 0.1 percent in 2009, 0.1pc in 2010, 0.14pc in 2011 (when ESCAS was introduced), 0.15pc in 2012, 0.11pc in 2013, 0.11pc in 2014, 0.12pc in 2015 and 0.13pc in 2016.

Senator Rhiannon said the focus should not on be the percentage of animals that died, but rather the actual number, stating that 17,098 exported animals died in 2016.

Asked to table mortality rates for 2016, Dr Clegg stated during the inquiry that in 2016, mortalities were 17,098 animals from 2,875,081 animals exported.

That comprised 1485 mortalities out of 1.1 million cattle exported; 15,591 mortalities from 1.759 million sheep exported and 22 mortalities from 4,230 buffalo exported.