This past week, the most read post has been, Why I’m No Longer Vegan. If you haven’t read it yet, it is well worth it, and does go to explain why most of us went vegan, and still are today.
Which leads into the rest of this post, and some depressing numbers that we should all be aware of.
The kill rate for the week ending 08 November 2012 experienced a slight drop in numbers, this was more to do with a drop in supply, rather than demand. The Kill Stats page has been updated with the latest figures.
For the week ending 08 November 2012, 470,842 cattle and calves were killed around the country, along with 55,328 sheep and lambs, bringing the weekly total to 618,332.
This past week also saw The Australian Greens release their plan for Australia’s transition from live exports to an increase in the chilled meat trade. The position paper got the full support and backing of the AMIEU, which is no surprise.
It is also worth mentioning something that The Greens, and the mainstream media all missed, 199 stud heifers boarded a 747 in the Northern Territory for a 3.5 hour flight to Jakarta, to become part of an Indonesian breeding program.
Where were the watermelons and the media when this was happening? Does make one wonder that the silence must mean it is ok to send animals overseas to become part of a breeding program, and then killed, with no mention of standards etc. we just can’t send them overseas to be killed. That has to be done here.
Queensland Racing Minister, Steve Dickson, sent out a media release yesterday talking up the Roma Cup that was held this weekend, in an effort to get more people to attend.
With prize money being lifeblood of the industry, as quoted by Mr Dickson, It probably explains why he reaffirmed the Newman Government’s commitment to waste $4 Million to reinvigorate thoroughbred racing in Queensland.
Contents
From The Animal Ag Press
Goats
The Meat and Livestock Association has released a new ‘tool’ titled, Going into Goats: A practical guide to producing goats in the rangelands. to help those producers in the rangelands with goats, by improving profitability and productivity.
It is also worth noting that the Australian Goatmeat Industry has been steadily growing for the past 20 years to a point now where they kill approximately 1.5 Million goats annually.
Whilst goat meat itself hasn’t traditionally been a part of the standard Australian diet, there has been a marked increase in goat dairy products, such as milk and cheese. The new favourite of the hoity toity consumer who doesn’t want to have the ‘traditional’ dairy products from a cow for whatever reason, choosing to exploit another animal rather than give it up entirely.
Australia also exports on average of 100,000 goats to various destinations annually.
Cattle
Brazil
Slaughter rates for the 10 months ending October, increased 5% to 19,086,000
Exports for October: year on year
Egypt +32% to 15,411 tonnes swt
Iran +46% to 13,335 tonnes swt
Venezuela +36% to 10,404 tonnes swt
China +114% to 4,986 tonnes swt
United States
Week ending 02 November 2012, 640,000 cattle killed. YTD 26,823,000
Uraguay
Week ending 09 November 2012, 44,000 cattle killed. YTD 1,742,000
Lamb
New Zealand
Exports for October were 20% higher than previous year at 17,921 tonnes swt
The lamb crop is estimated to have grown by 3% this year.
Exports year on year
EU: +24% to 7,928 tonnes swt (UK +31% to 3,554 tonnes swt)
China: +86% to 3,043 tonnes swt
Middle East: +42% to 2,267 tonnes swt
Whilst these figures may look depressing and hopeless, they should serve as a reminder as to why we cannot give up in our promotion of veganism.
Flying pig campaigns, baby steps, or happy meat approaches will not bring this number down, whereas getting people to go vegan will.
This article was written by the founder of VeganPolice.com.au, Cameron Blewett.
Cameron is a long term vegan (30+yrs), and is passionate about veganism, and helping people to understand more about it and giving other animals equal consideration.
You can find Cameron’s other rants on his website, CameronBlewett.blog