This time last week, we stood in front of a Federal Court Judge to request an urgent trial in a final desperate attempt to force action to help Australian sheep – this time in Oman.
What Animals Australia investigators recently discovered in Oman can only be described as a total disregard for Australian live export rules – exposing countless animals to brutal slaughter. We have lodged six complaints with the live export regulator, the Federal Department of Agriculture. This marks our 72nd legal complaint since regulations were put in place 11 years ago, further reinforcing that export companies cannot be trusted to police their own activities.
Our calls to the Regulator to direct relevant export companies to purchase sheep in non-approved premises and return them to approved supply chains have been ignored. While we were granted a trial, it became clear that time had run out for these animals. A month of regulator and exporter inaction had already sealed their fate.
Meanwhile in Australia, the industry’s PR machine has been in full swing – pitching a story of reform to rally support against the Albanese government’s planned phase-out of live sheep exports.
Overseas, the sheep they are responsible for are having their throats cut on crude concrete slabs.
And once again, the only reason that anybody – including the Commonwealth regulator – is aware that live export regulations are being flagrantly breached is because of an Animals Australia investigation. This damning situation has now been exposed in national media.
