Inquiry into the impacts of the phase out of live sheep exports on NSW
Submission overview
The Australian Alliance for Animals thanks the Committee for the opportunity to provide evidence to the Inquiry into the impacts of the phase out of live sheep exports on NSW.
The live sheep export trade is fundamentally incompatible with acceptable standards of animal welfare. The available scientific evidence and decades of experience demonstrate that exporting Australian Merino sheep into the Middle East for slaughter gives rise to a long list of inherent and intractable animal welfare issues. These issues are built into the very nature of the trade and cannot be avoided through changes in regulation or management. It is for these reasons that we, along with millions of Australians, support the phase out of the trade.
Our submission outlines the extensive animal welfare concerns which led to the phase out and which remain embedded within the trade today. It canvasses the overwhelming community opposition to the trade and support for the phase out, and it discusses the negligible impacts the phase out will have on the NSW sheep industry. We commend the Australian Government for phasing out the live sheep export trade. Our members and their 2 million-plus collective supporters call on the NSW Parliament and the NSW Government to support animal welfare and the wishes of the NSW community by supporting the phase out.
This submission is made on behalf of our six core member organisations – Animals Australia, Humane Society International Australia, World Animal Protection, FOUR PAWS Australia, Compassion in World Farming, and Voiceless, the animal protection institute.
Read our submission
In this submission, the Alliance for Animals focuses on the extensive animal welfare concerns with exporting live sheep, the overwhelming community support for the phase out, and the negligible impacts the phase out will have on the NSW sheep industry.