In just over two weeks, hundreds of people travelled from far and wide to join Animals Australia campaigners in Port Adelaide for five protests, shining a spotlight on the cruelty of live export. What an amazing effort by South Australians! And now the people of Perth are stepping up to make their voice heard too.
This all began when an old car carrier, converted into a live export ship, carrying 67,000 sheep, broke down after one day at sea. The ship went back to Port Adelaide but the animals were not immediately unloaded. Instead, they remained stuck on board in cramped pens. Around 300 animals died on board the Al Messilah in just 10 days!
Sadly, these deaths are not unusual. In fact, on every ship that leaves our shores hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of animals die. But what was unusual is that it happened under our noses, for all Australians to see. And with every one of the protests making the nightly TV news, the protesters guaranteed that the animals suffering would not go unnoticed.
After suffering on board the broken down ship for 10 days, the animals were finally unloaded and sent to a feedlot, their fate uncertain. But these animals weren't safe for even two weeks before another boat, the Al Shuwaikh, arrived to load them for the trip to the Middle East -- to countries with no laws to protect them from cruelty.
Over three consecutive days, hundreds of people turned out at Port Adelaide to call for an end to the cruelty. On the final day, as the boat readied to set out, people laid flowers in a memorial to the victims of live export -- the thousands that die on board ships each year and the millions that are slaughtered fully conscious :(
On each of the last three days of protests, the exporters seemed to be trying to avoid the protesters (and media), first delaying the ships arrival, then delaying loading and then rushing to load animals through the night before the protesters returned. Does that sound to you like an industry with nothing to hide?
All thoughts today are with the sheep onboard the Al Shuwaikh, which has just arrived in Fremantle, and with the wonderful people of Western Australia who were out in force at Fremantle Port today, to again highlight just how cruel this industry is and show our politicians that Australians will not stay silent while animals continue to suffer in this trade.
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Were you at any of the protests in Port Adelaide or Freo? Share your experience in the comments.
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