Live export from New Zealand should be banned

This Thursday the 24th October Save Animals From Exploitation (SAFE) presented a petition to Parliament against live animal export. They asked the government to prohibit the live export of farmed animals to countries with lower animal welfare, transport and slaughter standards than New Zealand.

It is my opinion that the potential for immense suffering and environmental degradation caused by live export is enough for the Government to call for an immediate ban.

The live export trade is ongoing in New Zealand despite a 25 per cent drop in live exports of breeding cattle in the last five years . Livestock carrier Ganado Express recently berthed at Napier Port to pick up 3,300 cattle bound for China. This is to be the seventh consignment of cattle exported this year, compared to four such exports in 2018. The total of cattle shipped overseas so far in 2019 is 15,229.

Many of the issues around live animal export are related to animal suffering. Live export ships are hellish environments for animals. These include living in cramped conditions with poor ventilation. They may endure high heat and humidity, rough seas, and no food or water when their troughs get knocked over.

Live export is currently under review, and agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has expressed his preference for a conditional ban on cattle exports. He has said he expects a report from the review by the end of the year. Yet despite this, the ships continue to set sail from our shores with animals on board travelling to an uncertain future. For many cows, the future is China. That is, of course, if they make it.

China has experienced incredible growth in dairy production in the last twenty years. Academics Dubois and Gao say that China is now one of the world’s biggest producer and consumer of dairy, and favours large scale farming methods.

The Yangtze Fortune which left New Zealand shores on 17 September this year with 4,700 New Zealand dairy cattle on board – destination China. Yet the Yangtze Fortune has a bad history of poor animal welfare, including high mortality statistics. Last year 33 cows died aboard the Yangtze Fortune on a journey from Australia to China – most of them from heat stress. This must be a particularly horrific way to die, and includes symptoms such as rapid heart rate, profuse sweating, drooling, staggers, agitation, thirst and collapse.

The Yangtze Fortune tried again to pick up 5000 cattle from Australia on August 23rd but was prevented from doing so following a biosecurity breach. So the Yangtze Fortune came to Napier and set sail with our dairy cows instead.

This picture is so far removed from the recent Fonterra advertisements of cows grazing contentedly on lush green grass year round. Instead, they may well be collapsing on the floor of a filthy ship, steeped in their own urine and faeces, without access to water and suffering terribly.

New Zealand’s own dairy co-operative in China – Fonterra – is one of the buyers of our cows. It has two farming hubs in China. China does dairying differently from New Zealand. There have been concerns raised over cows housed in intensive confinement with high herd numbers. They have no time outside, living their entire lives on concrete floors. They are used as nothing more than ‘udders on legs’ going between the milking parlor and their feedlots two-three times a day. That is not a life for any animal.

One of these hubs is Tangshan where cows are housed in concrete confinement lots and fed on mainly maize and silage. Sometimes in the barns the temperature falls to -25C. There are many weeks where the temperature doesn’t get above zero. Converserly in summer temperatures reach 40C and there is high humidity.

There have been other animal welfare disasters resulting from live animal transport. One notable one was a recent deal between New Zealand and live export corporation Wellard. As part of this deal New Zealand recently shipped 2000 cows to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan farmers did not receive the guidance and support promised from Wellard and many of the cows are suffering with dysentery, mastitis and Mycoplasma bovis bacterium. Distressing footage has emerged of these cows collapsing and dying. Wellard still wants to send another 15,000 cows to fill the order.

And then there are environmental sustainability concerns. At a time when climate change is posing a threat to the survival of life as we know it on the planet, it seems ludicrous to be expanding dairy production. A research article by Susanne Stoll-Kleemann & Tim O’Riordan in 2015 stated that “dairy product consumption also has serious implications for the future of the world’s climate. Animal waste releases methane (most of that from enteric fermentation by ruminants) and nitrous oxide (mostly from manure), greenhouse gases that are 30 and 300 times, respectively, more potent than carbon dioxide”.

Why has livestock shipping been allowed? New Zealand prides itself on having a high animal welfare record and a strong environmental ethic. Yet it has put the lives and welfare of dairy cows in jeopardy and forges ahead with unsustainable expansion of dairying globally. As Stoll-Kleemann and O’Riordan state, dairy production has both “moral and ecological dangers”.

The moral issues are evident when it results in animal pain. Recent cases have demonstrated that live export of dairy cows can result in extreme suffering. Conditions on board export ships – dubbed ‘death ships’ or ‘ships of shame’ by Animals Australia – are distressing and cause illnesses and death. In addition animal welfare standards in New Zealand are woefully absent in many countries that animals are shipped to. Corruption, crime and industry cover-ups keep these atrocities in the dark.

So why does New Zealand allow this atrocity? Breeding is the one reason animals are allowed to be exported from New Zealand shores. New Zealand banned live export in 2003 following the horrific deaths of 6,000 sheep on a ship bound for Saudi Arabia. But New Zealand has found challenges from international pressure on economic relations due to the ban. Live export was re-introduced for breeding purposes. Animals are not allowed to be exported for the express purpose of being slaughtered – and yet, of course, this is the ultimate outcome.

These cows may end up spending their lives in concrete factory farms, only to be slaughtered after they have fulfilled their reproductive ‘duties’. Ultimately exporting for breeding results in the animal being slaughtered. The slaughter may be horrific. The legalities from New Zealand require compliance to accepted animal welfare codes. But once animals reach their destination, there is no guarantee that these laws are upheld. Animal welfare standards in New Zealand are woefully absent in many countries that animals are shipped to. Corruption, crime and industry cover-ups keep these atrocities in the dark. For example, the slaughter procedures may not entail stunning, as it is not required in many of the countries that animals are exported to from New Zealand. They may simply be bashed over the head with a sledge hammer before having their throats slit

We cause all this animal suffering for economic purposes. A quote from William Inge puts this in perspective: “We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”

New Zealand, it’s not good enough.

It’s time to remove our horns, put down our pitchforks and stop the travesty of live export.