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Veterinary groups have criticised the federal government’s plans to commence live cattle exports to China.\r\n\r\nVets Against Live Export (VALE) said the journey by sea to China is about 18 days, equivalent to the journey to the Middle East, a distance they deem unacceptable.\r\n\r\nThe organisation is also concerned about animal protection laws in China, and said Australian animals are likely to be handled and slaughtered in a fashion that would be unacceptable at home.\r\n\r\nVALE believe animal welfare is best served when animals are slaughtered as close as possible to the point of production.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe history of what has happened to Australian cattle exported live tells us that the outcomes are not likely to be acceptable,\u201d VALE spokesperson Sue Foster said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe second important consequence is the deleterious effect this will have on the Australian meat processing industry.\u201d\r\n\r\nFoster said the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) report from the September quarter of this year indicates that local beef cattle slaughter will decrease by five per cent, primarily due to increased live export demand.\r\n\r\nShe added that the demand for both domestic and export meat (including demand from China) would remain strong, however direct competition for slaughter animals being sent to live export would result in a fall in beef and veal exports.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe meat processing industry in Australia employs over 200,000 people, but the significant decrease in domestic and export meat production must be expected to impact negatively on employment in the meat processing sector.\u201d\r\n\r\nFoster concluded that increasing local processing of cattle and exporting meat in response to demand is the rational and ethical course of action.\r\n\r\nA spokesperson from the office of Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce said live exports are an important, ongoing trade for Australia, contributing to the economy and supporting regional communities.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe livestock export trade contributes to the food security of people in several countries across the world,\u201d the spokesperson said.\r\n\r\n\u201cAustralia’s leadership in the trade provides an opportunity to positively influence animal welfare conditions in other countries.\u201d\r\n\r\nMinister Joyce’s office claimed the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) provides assurance that international animal welfare standards are being met in 18 countries, training over 7000 people in animal handling and husbandry skills.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhile it is difficult to measure welfare outcomes in other countries our information shows that ESCAS has lead to improvements in animal handling and slaughter practices,\u201d the spokesperson said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe current system is designed to ensure industry minimises the risk.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt also provides us with the process to investigate and requires exporters to address problems in supply chains as they arise, in a manner that minimises the disruption to trade and improves animal welfare outcomes.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe spokesperson added that the federal government has been working with the Chinese government\u2019s veterinary authorities to reach agreement on animal health certification requirements.\r\n\r\n\u201cI expect exporters will soon be working with importers in China to implement the ESCAS and establish supply chains that meet requirements,\u201d the spokesperson said.\r\nSAM WORRAD<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veterinary groups have criticised the federal government’s plans to commence live cattle exports to China. Vets Against Live Export (VALE) said the journey by sea to China is about 18 days, equivalent to the journey to the Middle East, a distance they deem unacceptable. The organisation is also concerned about animal protection laws in China, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1583,1581,314,92,1585,1584,770,895,1582],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-australian-bureau-of-agricultural-and-resource-economics-and-sciences","tag-barnaby-joyce","tag-cattle-exports","tag-cruelty","tag-exports","tag-imports","tag-live-export","tag-vale","tag-vets-against-live-export"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Veterinary groups have criticised the federal government’s plans to commence live cattle exports to China. Vets Against Live Export (VALE) said the journey by sea to China is about 18 days, equivalent to the journey to the Middle East, a distance they deem unacceptable. The organisation is also concerned about animal protection laws in China, and said Australian animals are..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1583":{"name":"Australian Bureau of Agricultural and REsource Economics and SCiences","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=australian-bureau-of-agricultural-and-resource-economics-and-sciences"},"1581":{"name":"Barnaby Joyce","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=barnaby-joyce"},"314":{"name":"cattle exports","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cattle-exports"},"92":{"name":"cruelty","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cruelty"},"1585":{"name":"exports","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=exports"},"1584":{"name":"imports","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=imports"},"770":{"name":"live export","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=live-export"},"895":{"name":"VALE","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vale"},"1582":{"name":"Vets Against Live Export","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vets-against-live-export"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1848,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions\/1848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}