Australians were recently shocked by dramatic scenes of animal cruelty in footage shown in ABC’s Four Corners documentary on the cattle live export trade. Cattle are shipped from northern Australia to Indonesia where thousands were dying “slow and hideous deaths”. After the program aired and a public outcry, the federal Government banned live export of cattle to Indonesia until the problems were sorted out. The ban was later lifted, even though stunning the animals before slaughter would not be mandatory.
I know readers of Roaming Tales are interested in food issues so I asked my friend Anna Ludvik, who has been involved in the live export campaign, a few questions about the issue. Anna is studying law at Southern Cross University with a view to specialising in animal rights advocacy. She is president of the university’s Animal Law Club, works on the Animal Law and Education Project at the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre, and is the regional member representative for the NSW Young Lawyers’ Animal Law Committee. She has lived in Thailand and Japan, where she was a vegetarian food specialist and spent her free time doing volunteer translations for animal rights and welfare organisations. She is now based in the Northern Rivers District of NSW and loves life amongst the cows and standing up for ethical farming practices.
Anna is pictured here at Threeworlds Byron Bay feeding David, a bobby calf who was destined for slaughter as a by-product of the dairy industry. He was rescued and this was his first day living with people.
Roaming Tales: What has been your involvement in the campaign against live export of cattle? Why did you personally get involved?
Anna Ludvik: I have been a campaigner for animals for most of my life and started to get involved in animal protection legal advocacy three years ago. In late 2010 I heard that our local MP Janelle Saffin was introducing a private members bill to Parliament [on the live export issue]. I decided to get behind her and show that regional Australia cares about animal welfare.
First, the Animal Law and Education Project (ALEP) at the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre planned to hold public information sessions in the region in June/July, as well as a rally. Then SCU Animal Law Club took part in the WSPA humane campus challenge, collecting signatures to local MP’s calling for an end to live export. We ultimately won the WSPA challenge, beating universities across the country by the sheer number of letters and emails sent to MPs calling for an end to the trade from this region.
When the Four Corners story broke, both local and national media was very interested in what we were doing in the region. Timing was perfect as the information sessions ALEP held had invited the meatworkers union, Dr Malcolm Caulfield, WSPA Live Export campaign manager, Jessica Borg, and Janelle Saffin’s office. So much debate and community involvement, for which we couldn’t have been more grateful. For the first time, activists, meatworkers and farmers were in agreement – live export must end.
RT: Australians were shocked by dramatic footage of the mistreatment of Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs. What was going on behind the scenes in the lead up to the Four Corners report?
AL: The level and extent of the cruelty was a shock to even we who had been following the issues for over ten years. We knew that horrific cruelty had been inflicted on sheep going to the Middle East for decades but were lead to believe that the northern cattle trade was a different story. We had been pre-warned by Animals Australia and insiders to brace ourselves for what was coming, but even those who organised the trip to Indonesia were shocked at just how much cruelty was going on and nobody could have predicted the national response – even we were taken aback by the unparalleled outpouring of Australian compassion for animals.
It is to the credit of Lynne White and Sarah Ferguson [who went undercover to film the footage] that the episode was so effective and the level of coverage was unprecedented in animal cruelty exposés. When Meat and Livestock Australia and Livecorp heard the footage was coming out they tried to blame White for withholding evidence of cruelty which they claimed they would have taken immediate action on, but not only were they shown to be partially responsible for the cruelty but evidence mounts that both they and Senator [Joe] Ludwig [minister for agriculture] had known about the contents of the footage and the cruelty well before it went to air.
RT: The government imposed a moratorium on live exports, then reversed its decision with certain caveats. Can you please explain the current situation to our readers? Is it enough?
AL: The current government assurances of animal welfare measures are flimsy. The guidelines that the MLA and the Government are trying to set as standards do not even make pre slaughter stunning mandatory. Reading them was a traumatic experience for me – they read like a torture manual, the ‘how not to’ slaughter manual. Far from detailing best practices, they go into detail of all the most gratuitously violent things a human could do to an animal, things that would not occur to the average healthy mind – then says these ‘should’ not be done. A legal mind knows straight up what ‘should’ means: It means no sanctions, no offence has occurred if the facility fails to abide by the regulation. Essentially, the guidelines offer little if anything to the animals.
The other measure the government has offered, a tracking system from ‘paddock to plate’ is a step in the right direction. This system aims to track the cows’ movement from the Australia right through to distribution as a meat product to ensure that the animal only goes to abattoirs deemed humane. However there is no way that the infrastructure needed to make sure this system is accurate and accountable could have been put in place within four weeks. There is nothing to stop the cutting off of ear tags/ears to be sent along the chain as proof. The industry clearly stated when the suspension was first announced that it would take five years to bring the slaughter facilities up to standard and now they are claiming it was possible in four weeks?
RT: What still needs to change from an animal welfare perspective?
AL: This is really the key question. The live export industry is inherently cruel. Nothing short of a phase out of the industry can realistically satisfy animal welfare concerns. If we were to take that step, we would not be the first country to do so. New Zealand has already banned live export and now enjoys a lucrative and growing chilled and frozen meat export industry. Across Europe we are seeing calls for the same thing. Putting a sheep on a boat for up to 35 days at a stocking rate of 3 sheep per square metre is inherently cruel.
When they arrive at destination and are slaughtered under standards over which we realistically have no control or jurisdiction there is no ‘humane’ solution on which we can rely. Agreements with importing countries have been trialed and each have failed. We have no jurisdiction overseas, cannot enforce any penalties for non-compliance and cannot rely on a cash-motivated industry to ensure welfare standards. There is nothing to prevent the same cruelty being repeated in Indonesia again, except that next time it will be harder to get in and film. How can we trust the government or industry to reliably report on welfare measures adequacy after what we have seen in recent weeks?
Can I also point out a fact that the media has really glossed over – Indonesia is seeking self- sufficiency by 2014. Over the past decade they have decreased import by 60% and have introduced a maximum bovine weight of 350 per head. The industry was already in crisis before the welfare allegations and feasibility studies on new abattoirs were already underway. Farmers had already ‘sacrificed’ 600 000 animals and many had sold their land. Much of what we are hearing now about the devastation to famers is minute in comparison to what happened last year. Let’s not forget – the entire Indonesian market must close by 2014!
RT: Should live export happen at all, taking into account not only animal welfare but the ability of cattle farmers to access markets in developing countries that may not have widespread refrigeration networks?
This one is rolled out all the time. There is no evidence that developing countries do not have adequate refrigeration facilities. Bearing in mind that as a source of protein, beef is the rich man’s food, there is no reason that refrigeration should be lacking and one wonders how other refrigeration-dependent foods would be transported. Furthermore, facilities in South Korea have expressed an interest in buying Australian frozen meat products and distributing them across Indonesia. Infrastructure may need to adjust, but the refrigeration argument is just another shock tactic which the industry relies on and in each case where live export has ceased in the past, refrigeration has proven to pose no problems, despite such accusations.
[Editor's note: Having travelled through rural parts of Sumatra in Indonesia, I agree with Anna. While meat is typically sold in a wet market, there is no reason why this needs to be the case. It's just the way it's always been done. From what I have seen, electricity is fairly widespread in Indonesia and most towns have shops that either have or could have refrigeration].
RT: Given that you are a vegan, at what point would you be satisfied with any given reforms? Would you keep campaigning until meat was banned or do you hope to build a consensus with mainstream Australia?
Hahaha. I am vegan (adjective) not vegan (noun). I have always advocated for incremental change. What I eat and what I buy are my personal choice.
This is not a vegan/vegetarian issue – it can’t be, since I am calling for a frozen and chilled meat export industry to advance. I am realistic in the view that we will not wake up one day and be collectively enlightened about veganism. I am supportive of farmers, vocally supportive of local meat workers who do the right thing and truly believe that most people care about animals and do want the animals in agriculture to live well and die well.
If people feel they have to eat meat, I want to make sure the animal doesn’t suffer anymore than is absolutely essential in the course of life and death. I don’t really think many people have ideological problems with this line of thinking.
RT: What has been your most memorable meal?
AL: To be honest, my most memorable meal doesn’t sound very memorable at first. It was a basic salad with no dressing, just each component laid side by side on a long plate. It was from Mother Esta in Daikanyama, Tokyo. Each piece of salad was an heirloom species, grown biodynamically and cut in the most extraordinary way. You ate each piece and savored the distinct flavour and texture, almost shocked by how much flavour could exist in something like a lettuce leaf. I think when you eat foods together the combined chemistry creates something new, but also fallible. This salad was inspiring as it was nature’s artist palate – you could just enjoy the complexity of a single ingredient at a time and the shock of the simple was unforgettable.
This was followed by a basic pasta with tomato sauce and eggplant. However, in Mother Esta Style, not only were the tomatoes heirloom varieties, with a rich and almost nostalgic depth of flavour, but the eggplant component consisted of 6 types of eggplant, each radically different from the next. What made the whole meal so spectacular was that sense of retraining the oral palate to understand that there is perfection in simplicity and honesty. How can we ever really learn to understand food if we don’t understand each ingredient in its perfect form? Quite an eye opener of a meal. The Japanese understand this better than anyone I think.
RT: Roaming Tales readers are interested in food and issues behind food. Tell us something interesting that they might not know.
AL: The number of people who have ceased eating meat or been more cautious about their purchases since seeing the Four Corners footage has taken me by surprise. Too often we forget where our food comes from and knowing your food may have suffered when alive is one of the most off-putting ingredients on any dinner plate. Many people have started to look at increasing their vegetable intakes and decreasing meat intakes. This is arguably a good thing on any rationale yet recently I was reminded about my early days experimenting with vegetarian cooking by an old friend. We shared how it had been a revelation, a true shock to realize how limited our diets had been when we had been dependent on meat.
I think anyone with a true love of food and creating innovative flavours can benefit from a while spent as a true vegetarian or vegan, to understand the breadth of protein sources and creativity, the vast spectrum of flavours that can only be understood in the absence of meat.
I don’t see veganism as a choice. I see it as a series of choices. I love what my meat eating cousin says about veganism: “I am vegan in my bathroom”. This sums up for me the spirit of caring about animals in your personal life. Making the choice to not have any substance in the bathroom that contains animal products or products tested on animals is part of the whole picture. If you can’t or don’t want to ‘give something up’, you do what you can; you add great stuff to your life, not subtract. It’s a wonderful way of raising awareness about the way animals are used, abused, depended on and supporting human needs, wants and desires. I like the idea of “vegan on Fridays” or “vegan in my lunch hour” as both a way to pay homage to the animals in our world and also as a way to expand our knowledge of food, technique, texture and flavour.
The time has come where we demand that welfare is not seen as a lesser priority than profit, be that human or animal welfare. The Japanese say “itadakimasu” before eating. It means “I humbly receive” but comes from an old poem which says something like “ I humbly receive the graces of the land for nourishment, the work of the farmer and the sacrifices of the earth”. Nice to eat with full consciousness.
Anna is happy to be contacted at scuanimallawclub AT gmail.com for further information.
They say that animals killed in a humane way taste better, some meat makers may want to consider this.