Significant improvements have been made in animal welfare but there is more work to do to satisfy critics, according to the Australian Livestock Exporters Council.
CEO of the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council, Alison Penfold said that 2011 and the events of the time were a massive wake up call for all industry participants and will always be a marker of our past and future performance.
“Livestock exporters were put on notice five years ago to fix and improve the treatment, handling and slaughter of exported Australian livestock,” Ms Penfold said.
“While the ban was a crude and abrupt approach to implement increased control over the trade in the absence of industry accountability and transparency, the outcome has placed the Australian livestock export trade on a more sustainable and responsible pathway – one that we are not complacent about.
“Every day since 2011 exporters have worked hard to implement their far reaching responsibilities for animal welfare along the supply chain to the point of slaughter.
“While ESCAS has been the regulatory platform for action, it is the work of exporters, customers and their staff and Australian and locally based animal welfare trainers that has had the most impact. Over 9,000 people have been trained in handling and slaughter practices in 23 markets, millions have been spent by exporters and our overseas customers in new infrastructure and equipment including stunners, restraining boxes, and yards, removal of old unsuitable equipment like Mark 1 boxes, and Animal Welfare Officers and Supply Chain Managers are now in facilities to oversee the day to day wellbeing and welfare of livestock in market.
“Despite this, we acknowledge that over the past five years our implementation of ESCAS has at times been found wanting and where animals have suffered in this process we are truly sorry.
“As individuals and as an industry we are genuinely committed to the care, wellbeing and welfare of all exported livestock at all times and genuinely working to improve what we do and how we do it. There are significant challenges to implementing change on the revolutionary scale of ESCAS particularly where there are cultural and business differences.
“We know our critics want us to do more and move more quickly than has been possible because of the scope of the change required and the nature of it. They view our failure to do so as a failure of any genuine commitment to change and improve animal welfare.
“This is certainly not the case as one of the most fundamental changes that we can report after five years is that getting our animal welfare issues right is increasingly at the core of our business and it’s widely recognised it’s ‘good business’ to get it right.
