{"id":969,"date":"2012-07-17T19:17:35","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T09:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=969"},"modified":"2012-07-26T19:24:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T09:24:00","slug":"rough-waters-for-aqis-as-live-export-criticism-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"Rough waters for AQIS as live export criticism continues"},"content":{"rendered":"The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) has conceded a live exporter acted inappropriately when a stockman was not present on board a voyage from Fremantle to Singapore.<\/span>\r\n\r\nHowever, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the report by the AQIS Accredited Veterinarian (AAV), Lloyd Reeve-Johnson, demonstrated that he was able, in conjunction with the crew of the vessel, to deliver the level of care that a stockman would have delivered as well as perform his other responsibilities.<\/span>\r\n\r\nVets Against Live Export (VALE) has accused AQIS of coming to an illegal informal agreement with International Livestock Exports to remove Reeve-Johnson from the 2008 voyage.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe veterinarian was aboard the <\/span>MV Hereford Express<\/em><\/span>, which transported over 7000 sheep, cattle and goats from Fremantle to Singapore and Malaysia, was removed from the vessel in Singapore after reporting the mortality limit for goats had been exceeded.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhen the vessel reached Singapore, Reeve-Johnson reported 18 dead goats, 5.14 per cent of consignment mortality level.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe vessel continued to Malaysia without an AQIS accredited veterinarian on board, which VALE claims contravened the Approved Export Program (AEP), a legal provision protecting animal welfare on live export ships.<\/span>\r\n\r\nInternational Livestock Exports was recently linked to exporting animals that were allegedly mistreated in three Indonesian abattoirs.<\/span>\r\n\r\nVALE claims the AEP required that the veterinarian remain on the vessel until all animals were unloaded.<\/span>\r\n\r\nReeve-Johnson said he would like to see a greater transparency in the interactions between veterinarians, live exporters and AQIS.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have a situation where veterinarians are employed by live exporters, they are paid by live exporters, and if they displease them with their findings they are subsequently not rehired,\u201d he said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n“It is critical that veterinarians are independent on these voyages, obviously because they are the ones protecting animal welfare.”<\/span>\r\n\r\nSue Foster, VALE spokesperson, agreed that the on-board veterinarian and stockman are the key people responsible for animal welfare on live export ships.<\/span>\r\n\r\nVALE adds that Reeve-Johnson told them there was no stockman onboard, which they claim was a legal necessity.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThis incident shows that AQIS is prepared to be influenced by the exporter in a way that detracts from the intention of the law to protect animal welfare,\u201d she said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is of great concern that AQIS allowed a voyage to occur without the legally required stockman and also agreed to the removal of the legally required on-board veterinarian.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThis raises serious questions about the ability and will of AQIS to properly regulate this industry.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nVALE also claims there were two voyage reports with differing mortality rates. The exporter submitted the report with lower levels. <\/span>\r\n\r\nA spokesperson for DAFF said the department \u201ctakes its role of regulator of live animal export operations seriously and maintains the highest level of integrity and compliance.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe spokesperson said an AAV was not required for the duration of the voyage, as prior to discharge in Singapore, the exporter sought and received approval from the department for the AAV to leave the vessel after the animals were discharged in Singapore and be replaced by an accredited stockman.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThe initial presence of an AAV on the voyage was necessary only to satisfy Singapore\u2019s import requirements.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is also clear that the arrangements for the AAV to be replaced by an accredited stockman for the remainder of the voyage to Malaysia was made in advance of the notifiable mortality incident.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nVALE Policy Advisor Malcolm Caulfield, rejects this assertion.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThe veterinarian was bullied and ejected, and was categorically told by the exporter he should not report the issue,\u201d Caulfield said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems to be that a vet has kicked up a fuss halfway, they’ve contacted AQIS and said \u2018we need to get rid of this guy\u2019, and they\u2019ve concurred. It is either total incompetence or an indication of something deeper.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nIn regard to the accuracy of the count, the spokesperson said that counts \u201cmust be as accurate as possible.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cEven in this case the AAV, with the aid of a crew member, was not able to give the precise number of goats on the vessel,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cUnder the current sheep and goat system, there is the potential for a small margin of error, as there is with any process involving a manual counting process.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe spokesperson added that the department\u2019s Compliance and Investigation branch has investigated serious issues raised by the AAV regarding \u201ccertain aspects\u201d of the voyage.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cUnder the Commonwealth\u2019s prosecutions policy, it can commence a prosecution only if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction. The Compliance and Investigation branch advice did not support this prospect, and the department took no further action,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn regard to goat mortalities, the AQIS investigation found that heat and humidity were contributing factors. The investigation also found there was insufficient information available to determine whether the animals were subject to any other disorder or diseases.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSince the voyage occurred, there has been an independent review of the live export system; the Farmer review.<\/span>\r\n\r\nA key recommendation of the review is for greater engagement by the department with AAVs and for them to provide their reports directly to the department.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDirect reporting has now been implemented and vets on livestock vessels are now reporting directly to the department rather than through the exporter.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe mortality investigation report and documents released under FOI relating to this voyage are available on the department\u2019s web site at daff.gov.au\/<\/span>\r\n\r\nSAM WORRAD<\/strong><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) has conceded a live exporter acted inappropriately when a stockman was not present on board a voyage from Fremantle to Singapore. However, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the report by the AQIS Accredited Veterinarian (AAV), Lloyd Reeve-Johnson, demonstrated that he was able, […]<\/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":[771,777,769,58,543,776,430,775,773,770,778,774,772,60,323],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-771","tag-aav","tag-aqis","tag-cattle","tag-criticism","tag-daff","tag-export","tag-fremantle","tag-goats","tag-live-export","tag-lloyd-reeve-johnson","tag-malaysia","tag-mv-hereford-express","tag-sheep","tag-singapore"],"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":407,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":407,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) has conceded a live exporter acted inappropriately when a stockman was not present on board a voyage from Fremantle to Singapore. However, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the report by the AQIS Accredited Veterinarian (AAV), Lloyd Reeve-Johnson, demonstrated that he was able, in conjunction with the crew..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"771":{"name":"2008","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=2008"},"777":{"name":"AAV","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=aav"},"769":{"name":"AQIS","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=aqis"},"58":{"name":"cattle","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cattle"},"543":{"name":"criticism","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=criticism"},"776":{"name":"DAFF","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=daff"},"430":{"name":"export","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=export"},"775":{"name":"Fremantle","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=fremantle"},"773":{"name":"goats","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=goats"},"770":{"name":"live export","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=live-export"},"778":{"name":"Lloyd Reeve-Johnson","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=lloyd-reeve-johnson"},"774":{"name":"Malaysia","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=malaysia"},"772":{"name":"MV HEreford Express","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=mv-hereford-express"},"60":{"name":"sheep","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=sheep"},"323":{"name":"Singapore","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=singapore"}},"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\/969","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=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":970,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}