Fresh images of the brutal slaughter of Australian livestock, broadcast by ABC Four Corners on Monday night, have reignited calls by Greens and Independent MPs, Labor backbenchers and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union for the live export trade to be banned.

Labor MPs opposed to live exports have announced they will use the last sitting week of the year  in November to urge the government to transition away from live exports and towards domestic processing of all Australian livestock.

The Australian newspaper reported this morning that the number of MPs now against the trade has increased following Monday night’s program.

Gillard asks Pakistan to investigate

Speaking at a global summit in Laos this week, Prime Minister Julia Gillard she has received an assurance from her Pakistan counterpart, Raja Pervez Ashraf, that he will conduct an investigation into the inhumane culling of 21,000 Australian sheep.

"I explained to him that Australians are distressed to see these acts of cruelty and that I wanted the matter investigated,” Ms Gillard said.

“He responded that he would investigate this culling of Australian sheep, which is being done in circumstances that rightly distress Australians.

"I was very clear about Australia's concerns, very strong in raising those concerns, very clear that this is something that has distressed the Australian people."

Monday night’s program "Another Bloody Business" criticised the industry for allowing a shipment of 2000 cattle to proceed to Pakistan in the wake of the sheep disaster. 

Live export industry leaders held a press conference yesterday to stress that the dairy cattle had been shipped to Pakistan for a National Government-run milk-producing program, and not for the direct to slaughter market, and were not going to the same regional Government that oversaw the sheep cull.

Lawyer says exporter followed rules

Lawyer Trent Thorne from McCullough Robertson in Brisbane, said a key premise of “Another Bloody Business” was that Wellard Rural Exports had acted improperly by rushing to secure Pakistan as a “quick fix” when the sheep were rejected by Bahrain over the presence of scabby mouth and by then failing to inform Pakistan of the shipment’s previous rejection.

The program said Pakistan's subsequent discovery that the sheep had initially been rejected by Bahrain generated anger among Pakistani authorities and led to the mass cull of the sheep.

Mr Thorne said claims Pakistan was selected as an emergency quick-fix overlooked the fact that exporters were required to identify a contingency market before they could gain approval to export from DAFF.

The Government introduced the requirement to lodge a Consignment Risk Management Plan, which requires the exporter to spell out what will happen in the event of mechanical breakdowns, extreme weather, and/or rejection of consignments by an overseas market, following the 2003 Cormo Express disaster.

When the shipment left Australia in early August, exporters were not required to have ESCAS-approved contingency markets. However, on August 28, DAFF sent a notification to exporters that from September 1, all contingency markets also had to be ESCAS approved.

The timing suggests (confirmation is being sought) this requirement was introduced when DAFF received notification from Wellard that its shipment to Bahrain would be diverted to its contingency market in Pakistan. While the contingency supply chain was not ESCAS accredited, the facilties were modern and constructed to Australian standards with investment from Wellard, which enabled the approval to be processed quickly.  Mauro Balzarini from Wellard told ABC radio this week the process was not rushed, as Wellard had been working on getting the Pakistani supply chain ESCAS accredited since April.

“They are saying that was all rushed, and yes the time frame was tight, but the facility complied, so it was approved,” Mr Thorne said.

“If you are the exporter and you have all these independent testing authorities telling you the sheep are clean, you are not going to get on the phone and say I have got some tainted sheep here, because you don’t think you have got tainted sheep.

“The (Pakistan) supply chain was not ESCAS approved when the shipment left Australia, but it was not required to be when the shipment left Australia.

“The program was hanging its hat on the exporter being deceitful but that was not the case.”

Vets say scabby mouth will cause problems again

A group of veterinarians opposed to the livestock export trade released a statement yesterday stressing the point that while scabby mouth may only be a minor disease in health terms, it had major importance as an excuse for rejection of sheep shipments.

The group Vets Against Live Export (VALE) says industry claims that the Pakistan crisis was an isolated event are untrue, because history had shown that scabby mouth rejections had resulted result in repeated and significant animal welfare disasters. This included the Cormo Express disaster in 2003 in which nearly 6000 sheep died before the Australian Government gifted the shipment to Eritrea.

The group said that both the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Phillip Glyde, and the Chief Veterinary Dr Mark Schipp played down the importance of scabby mouth disease in live export sheep in Monday night’s program.

In its statement the group said Dr Schipp had described the disease during the program as "unimportant" and Mr Glyde reinforced the same view when he said it was not a requirement of importing countries that sheep be free of scabby mouth. 

However, despite being a minor disease in health terms, the presence of scabby mouth allowed importing countries to reject sheep shipments at any time, VALE spokesperson Dr Sue Foster said.

Scabby mouth was highly contagious and widespread, and conditions on ships were ideal for scabby mouth to spread, she said.

“In other words, the disease cannot be eradicated from live export ships and will continue to be used as justification for rejection of shipments for political or commercial reasons while this trade continues.

“So far as animal welfare is concerned, the consequences of this clinically minor disease are therefore profound indeed.

“It is VALE’s view that claiming that scabby mouth is unimportant graphically illustrates how, in order to protect this trade, the government, the Chief Veterinary Officer and the exporter are prepared to rewrite and misrepresent history.”

* An earlier version of this article said media reports had stated DAFF was looking into reports that ears of Australian cattle were sliced off prior to slaughter in Egypt. DAFF has stated the reports are not correct:

STATEMENT ON CATTLE EXPORTED TO EGYPT

Contrary to media reports, the Egyptian government has confirmed that exported cattle with ear implant growth promotants will only have their ears removed AFTER slaughter (not before).

DAFF has been advised that Egyptian General Organisation of Veterinary Services veterinarians have removed implant pellets from cattle but the ears have not been removed.The safety of hormonal growth promotants (HGPs) registered in Australia for use in cattle has been rigorously assessed.

The Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)/World Health Organisation (WHO) Expert Committee on Food additives has also undertaken independent scientific assessments which support the safety of these HGPs.

The HGPs used in Australia are formulated for slow release and use inert material (eg. silicone rubber). No active drug remains after the slow release. Depending on the particular HGP implant formulation, the release period ranges from 100 to 400 days. After this period only the inert part of the implant remains.