(Australia) Minister implies public apathy to live animal export trade

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

Please read the articles below that mention the live sheep/animal trade

eminating from Australia. The State of Western Australia is

strengthening ties (trade etc) with Dubai in the Middle East.

 

Please note the West Australian Minister for

Agriculture (Minister Kim Chance) made the comment about the live sheep

trade

" Maybe the public accepts it is simply a trade . . . and they are not

offended, " he said.

 

I believe the majority of the West Australian public find the

cruelty involved in the live sheep/animal trade deplorable and would like to

see the end of the

live animal trade from West Australia (and the whole of Australia).

 

Please email Minister Kim Chance and tell him what you think about his

comments

and the cruelty involved in the live sheep/animal export trade.

 

For further details of recent agonising deaths of thousands of animals at

sea

in the ships of shame, visit PACAT website at http://www.pacat.org

and visit their live animal trade facts and the news section.

 

Email Kim Chance at

 

The Hon Kim Chance MLC

The Minister for Agriculture

11th Floor, Dumas House

2 Havelock Street

WEST PERTH

Western Australia 6005

Fax: (08) 9213 6701

Fax (International) +61 8 9213 6701

email: kim-chance

 

 

WA dips out on stock and trade

The West Australian Newspaper

October 28th 2002

http://www.thewest.com.au/20021028/news/state/tw-news-state-home-sto76648.ht

ml

 

By Steve Pennells

 

DUBAI

 

IN THE mad, dusty markets of Dubai, a consequence of WA's extended dry is

being played out as a kind of global trade war.

 

Where live sheep from WA once dominated, the animal of choice now comes from

somewhere closer - Somalia. Or Iran. Certainly not WA.

 

The State's long dry spell and a depressed wool market in the 1990s saw

Australia's sheep numbers slump.

 

Yesterday, in a bid to arrest the decline and amid an ever-present outcry

over the live sheep trade, a delegation from WA was walking around a United

Arab Emirates feedlot and working out how to get more animals there.

 

One of the Middle East's biggest sheep importers, Mubarak al Hadhrami,

sighed as he pointed out the 14,000 sheep in a feedlot designed to hold

100,000. If WA had more, he would take them, he said.

 

For the first time, in a country where custom demands sheep be bought while

breathing, Mr Mubarak is considering importing carcasses.

 

" This is hurting them (UAE importers) badly, " Agriculture Minister Kim

Chance said.

 

Asked how plans to increase exports would go down with opponents of the live

sheep trade, Mr Chance said adverse public reaction seemed to have died

down.

 

" Maybe the public accepts it is simply a trade . . . and they are not

offended, " he said.

 

The horror stories of large-scale death and suffering on sheep ships " are

just bloody awful and nobody regrets them more than the trade " .

 

Mr Mubarak pointed to a cooling system which chills the animals' 45C

drinking water to half that, as well as shade cloth and sprinklers.

 

" We are taking care of the sheep, " he said.

 

End

 

**************************************************

Trade talks herald WA business boost

The West Australian newspaper

October 29th 2002

 

By Steve Pennells

 

DUBAI

 

THE United Arab Emirates will boost business and investment links with WA

in the wake of the biggest trade delegation in the State's history.

 

The promise has come in a series of meetings as the 91-strong group tours

the Gulf on an unprecedented mission to sell the State.

 

The deputy ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, said the WA

push had not gone unnoticed.

 

Yesterday, Emirates Group chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Said al Maktoum

committed the Emirates airline to daily flights between Dubai and Perth.

 

And Dubal Aluminium, which is doubling its size and looking for a long-term

supplier of alumina, described WA's approach as fortuitous.

 

Amid a climate of potential war in Iraq to its north, the UAE is seeing the

delegation's visit as a powerful statement.

 

The meeting between Dr Gallop and Sheikh Hamdan was covered by Middle East

television and newspapers.

 

Last night, before hosting a gala dinner to open WA's new regional trade

office in Dubai, Dr Gallop repeated his push on Gulf television.

 

" Dubai clearly set upon itself the task of becoming the commercial centre of

the region, " Dr Gallop said before the broadcast. " It is obvious that if you

look to the Middle East, this is a huge centre of activity and, quite

frankly, we need to be here. "

 

UAE officials consider a United States strike against Iraq as inevitable but

said this week that they did not believe it would have any long-term effect

on the Emirates.

 

End