Banning Live Exports?

Indonesian Slaughterhouses Under Fire

Animal Rights – Yet another video recording animal cruelty in Indonesian slaughterhouses has drawn the ire of Australians and put pressure on Canberra to end its $340 million live-cattle trade with the Southeast Asian nation.

Australia agriculture minister Joe Ludwig said that Australia would address the new video images that show various abuses occurring at an Indonesian abattoir, or slaughterhouse. He said that Canberra could re-impose the export ban on the slaughterhouse if it was found to have broken animal welfare rules.

The video was shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Line and sourced by an Indonesian investigator. It showed workers slitting the cow’s throat without stunning it first – because stunning it makes it apparently makes it painless – as is required under the new set of rules made after the lifting of 2011′s export ban.

“There will be mistakes, there will be slips, but the system ensures we can deal with those slips and mistakes,” Ludwig told Australian radio as quoted by Reuters.

Those rules include stipulations that demand exporters adhere to animal welfare standards at the Indonesian slaughterhouses they supply, and the ability to punish firms that supply cattle to cruel slaughterhouses.

Indonesia has promised a “thorough investigation of the matter.”

“In our understanding, one of the principles is to manage troubled slaughterhouses case by case, instead of generalizing for all slaughterhouses,” said Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi in a text message.

Bayu went on to say (or text) that Indonesia and Australia are committed to making animal welfare a “common concern.”

WARNING: The related video below contains disturbing images that may be NSFW. Please watch at your own risk, and have a box of tissues ready.

Read more at the Jakarta Post.

Photo Credit DDCoral.