Public Forum 24 April 2018 – Peter Cormick Item NOM18/006 ANIMAL CRUELTY AND THE LIVE EXPORT INDUSTRY Rarely if ever has it been truer to say that a picture is worth a thousand words than when we see those shocking images of the brutal, hellish suffering and torture inflicted upon innocent, defenceless, gentle creatures condemned to export for barbaric slaughter in foreign lands. No normally developed person can but be greatly moved and distressed by these images: and be moved to actually do something to stop this monstrous practice. And yet we have not seen these images first hand. How much greater then, the impact on us, if we were to be actually present in the midst of this suffering, aboard the ships that take them to their nightmarish end. The remoteness of the suffering of others can too easily cause an easy disengagement from the sufferers – and, I suggest, we need to be cognisant of and alert to this phenomenon and do what we can to overcome it. With Councillor McGinlay’s proposed motion you are being asked to do no more than agree to send a couple of letters, imploring our federal government to phase out this abomination and to advocate for the creation of a long overdue Independent Office of Animal Welfare. Nothing could be simpler and less controversial. What would be controversial would be to not agree with what is being proposed by Councillor McGinlay. That would bring a swift and heavy hail of condemnation upon oneself; but that should not be a motivation for doing the right thing. The motivation should be to condemn the barbarity on moral grounds. To state the obvious, what we have witnessed in the footage that has been appearing on television, is a level of barbarity that could not be more at odds with the values of the civilised society we all believe we belong to. We are meant to have developed to at least a moderate state of enlightenment. I want to see this barbarism stopped immediately but I can of course appreciate Councillor McGinlay’s politically realistic approach of seeking to have it phased out. I would like to suggest that the letter on the phasing out of live exports, propose a time scale: one that would seek to bring the practice to an end as soon as possible and certainly to have it suspended during the northern hemisphere summer months. For those of you who might be concerned about the effect of ending the practice, on farmers’ incomes, I point you to the recent report produced by Pegasus economics, on behalf of Animals Australia and to the recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, the links to which I emailed to you last night. The moral cost of allowing the barbarity to continue is immeasurably higher than any financial cost that might be experienced by those who benefit from the suffering of these defenceless, voiceless creatures. And for those who may feel that they are absolved from a position on this matter, in the belief that it is not one that concerns local government – then I ask you to please not attempt to insult our intelligence by expressing such a view. This is a matter that concerns every thinking, caring human who has even a scintilla of morality about them and demands of us all to take positive action to bring the barbarity to an end. _________________ The following links were provided to the councillors the day before in support of the presentation: http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/tv-ad- spots-live- sheep-export.php https://www.smh.com.au/national/live-sheep- exports-are- not-worth- the-moral- cost-20180421- p4zawf.html http://www.afr.com/news/shutting-down- sheep-trade- would-have- little-economic- impact-on- farmers-report- finds-20180409- h0yi7c https://www.9now.com.au/60-minutes/2018/extras/clips/clip- cjfqah0td003u0qs8g3pgsbl8 http://www.dominionmovement.com/#
