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Mustering for slaughter or export

Some feral animals are rounded up for transport to slaughterhouses or for live export overseas. Animals in this category include buffaloes, camels to some extent, goats and horses. The process of mustering and transport is enormously stressful for these wild animals.

Australia is the only country that has a wild population of camels. Some animals are captured and exported back to the Middle East, for example, for the racing industry.

Around 80% of the buffaloes removed from the Northern Territory between 1983-1986 were captured by commercial operators (1). They were either transported to slaughterhouses or exported live back to Asia.

Some buffaloes are lassoed from 4WD bull catcher vehicles, while others are herded into pens with helicopters and/or 4WD vehicles. Apart from the stress this causes to all animals, national parks officials reported specific cases of cruelty (1):

" In some situations, stock have endured holding in yards for up to seven days before reaching the abattoirs. During the operation, animals are often stressed as they may be rammed by vehicles, prodded with electric shocks, branded and held in yards where at times conditions are unsuitable.

ANPWS also indicated that stock officers have observed losses due to poor conditions, constriction, dehydration, injuries incurred during capture and heat stress ".

With the number of buffaloes dramatically reduced due to the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign, the industry now relies on farmed buffaloes.

Goats are mustered into pens with motorcycles, horses or helicopters. In some areas they are also trapped at waterholes. The waterhole is surrounded by a high fence, with the only way in via a ramp. The goats jump off the ramp to reach water, but can't jump back out because the ramp is too high (2).

Many goats are transported to slaughterhouses. However, some are exported live to the Middle East and Asia, even though they suffer and die even more than sheep during this transport. In 1996, 15,633 goats were exported (3). Death rates during shipping have been 6% (4).

Some die before they are even loaded. In one study about 500 wild male goats were captured, trucked 500km and then kept in feedlots for 19 days to get them used to the diet of pellets they would be fed on board ship. During this time, 8.8% of the goats died. As with sheep, the main causes of death are salmonella and refusal to eat (4).

Horses slaughtered for human consumption are transported vast distances to Peterborough (SA) because this is the only place licensed to export horse meat. This slaughterhouse kills 30,000 horses a year, and 20-25% of these are feral (1). The meat is exported mainly to Belgium and Japan.

The stress for these horses begins with mustering. They are chased into yards with motorbikes and/or helicopters, often in mountainous and rugged country where the risk of injury is high. Here is one description of such a chase (5):

" The horses gallop flat out through the mulga scrub, ducking and weaving with the motorcycles racing at speeds of up to 90km/h to cut them off. The horses have a natural advantage on their home territory; fallen timber, rough ground and thick scrub badly hinder the bikes ."

These wild animals, unaccustomed to humans and confinement, are then loaded into trucks for long distance transport. There are examples of horses being sent from the Gulf of Carpentaria by train to Brisbane and then by road from Brisbane to Peterborough (1). Horses are also transported from the Northern Territory and across the Nullarbor from Western Australia.

The Australian Equine Veterinary Association has stated that transport of wild horses for distances up to 3000km is inhumane. They stated (1):
" The experience would be a significant stress for a domestic horse used to travelling but must be quite horrific for a trapped wild horse ".

According to the Codes of Practice for the transport of animals by road and rail, horses may be transported for up to 24 hours without food and water. After 24 hours, the codes state that the animals should be unloaded, given food and water and enough space to exercise and rest. However, 24 hours is a long time without water for an animal which drinks 25 litres a day in normal conditions, and up to twice that amount when the weather is 40 degC.

Double-decker trucks for horses have been banned in NSW, but are still used in some states. The horses on the bottom deck have to hold their heads down, and those on the top deck can be hit by tree branches.

Here is a description from a government vet of horses arriving at Peterborough from Queensland on a double-decker-truck - the vet claims that the horses were in satisfactory condition and that double decker-trucks are not a problem (6).

" A small percentage of tall horses, which had travelled on the bottom deck on DD transports, appeared to have stiff backs and necks for a short period after arrival. No problems were noted in horses descending from the top deck - provided they were given plenty of time, and were not blinded or lame. Eye and wound irritations were noted among horses from Jericho (Qld), possibly resulting from dipped horses travelling in dusty conditions ."

One wonders whether horses with stiff necks or backs and eye or wound irritations, who are blind or lame, can really be called in satisfactory condition.

In overall transport of horses for slaughter, there is an average of 1 in every 200 horses that arrives at the slaughterhouse dead or in such bad condition that it has to be destroyed immediately (6). A major cause of death is trampling. Once a horse falls, it is very difficult to get up again. Other horses can easily trample it to death as they stagger to maintain their footing in a moving vehicle.

The problem is even greater for feral horses transported for slaughter. While information from slaughterhouses states that between 0.5% and 3% die or are significantly injured, the Senate Select Committee Report on feral animals adds that: " ...direct observations of consignments to abattoirs indicate that this figure may be as high as 18% " (1).

On the basis of the stress, possible injuries, and death rates of horses transported for slaughter, the Senate Select Committee reached the following conclusion:

" On the basis of the evidence presented during the enquiry, the Committee registers strong concerns about the welfare of feral horses being transported, particularly over long distances. The Committee considers that the prolonged stress and trauma associated with this practice is unconscionable and cannot be condoned. The inherent welfare problems involved in handling, transporting and holding feral horses are sufficient to raise serious questions about their continuing use in the export horse-meat trade " (1).

I would like to go to other documents on feral animals:

Feral animals in Australia: introduction
Poisons
Introduced diseases
Trapping
Other methods (shooting, warren ripping, dogging)
Alternatives to killing

References