OMG It's the Vegan Police

Once again it seems that people in Australia are getting upset over the treatment of some animals that were sold to an overseas buyer.

The footage from Animals Australia that was shown on the ABC’s Four Corners showed animals at an Indonesian slaughterhouse being mistreated and killed in ways that were not palatable to the wider Australian public.

Since the airing of the Four Corners report we have seen the different sides of politics condemn the killing of “Australian” animals in this manner. Our Prime Minister has even decided to put an immediate ban on live exports of cattle to that country.

Animal welfare groups have done the usual thing that they do and claim this as a victory for common sense. Whilst the livestock industry is up in arms about the ban saying that it will cost them $X per week or for however long it lasts. This in turn has caused the premier of Queensland to establish a government sponsored taskforce to find new markets for the animals that were to be shipped overseas to be killed.

The meat workers union has even come out on the side of the animal groups by claiming that the 2 industry groups knew about the slaughter practices that were taking place in the region and they just turned a blind eye to it. Though their position is that the animals should be killed here because live exports put Australian jobs at risk.

So what will come out of all of this, will we see any improvements and who are the ones that really have blood on their hands?

I believe that whilst this ‘situation’ leaves questions unanswered and even more not asked it will all soon be covered by the smoke screen that is government and/or industry rhetoric once the public shifts focus to another issue.

Sadly, this once again points out the hypocritical attitudes that we have in this country.

Those poor hard done by farmers raised the cattle for the sole purpose to be killed, either here or overseas, and they are rewarded handsomely. Regardless of how many codes of practice they claim to abide by, the fact of the matter is these sentient beings were raised to be killed.

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Here are a few interesting pieces from today’s Brisbane MX newspaper.

P2:
Farmer Fallout
Queensland’s shadow Primary Industries Minister, Ray Hopper seems to think that we will soon be drinking long life milk if the pricing war between Coles and Woolworths continues, as he says that milk is being sold at below cost.
I still believe that this stunt is being used as a precursor to either have the Australian market flooded with cheap imports, or the creation of super dairies housing X,000’s of cows.
The interesting thing is that Mr Hopper says that a similar tactic was used in Britain where dairy farmers got burnt.
There was a recent article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph reporting on the withdrawal of plans for the UK’s largest dairy farm the original plan was to keep 8,100 cows on the site at Nocton Heath. Though these were withdrawn and resubmitted with the planned lower number of 3,770 cows.

The farmers said their “sole” reason for the decision to withdraw their application was the objection by the Environment Agency to the proposal on the grounds that there was a lack of information about the risks to an aquifer under the site and uncertainty over the benefits of changing the use of the land.

Sadly, I do think that we will see plans for another super dairy, possibly in a different area. It will also be interesting to see what happens here in Australia.

P5:
Flood Events
A study published in the current edition of the scientific journal Nature, claims that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the intensification of heavy precipitation events.
You can read an extract of the original article here.

P7:
Tattooed pigs
Is an interesting piece about a Belgian artist that is tattooing pigs on an Art Farm in China. The piece even comes complete with pictures of the tattooed pigs.
I am not sure if it is a typical News Ltd thing to do or not, though it appears that this news story is in fact well over 6 years old. This ‘artist’ started tattooing pigs in China in 2004, and the picture used was in fact from 2005 and can be found on his site http://www.wimdelvoye.be/artfarm.php
I will do my best to contact Queensland Newspapers to see if it is a rehash of an old story.