Farmers demand end to plan to ban live sheep trade after cruelty charges against exporter are dropped

Farmers are demanding the Government’s plan to end the live sheep trade be abandoned after the collapse of the court case against exporters that had drawn negative attention to the industry and heightened political opposition. Animal cruelty charges against Emanuel Exports relating to the deaths of 2400 live export sheep five years ago were dropped last week after the State Government announced it was “no longer in the public interest” to prosecute after receiving new legal advice. Boyup Brook farmer Charles Caldwell said although the Federal Government’s plan for phasing out was independent from the court case with the State, it was still a problem for WA farmers that needed a resolution. “The Government needs to change the policy, but that goes past this case and just is a part of a stupid policy,” he said. Woodanilling sheep farmer Bindi Murray said the footage that had emerged of the sheep deaths at the time had damaged the industry but that it had also prompted improvements and hoped the dropping of the charges could “put a line through the incident”. “The mortality incident definitely affected it (the industry), and since then, everyone has been working hard to make the changes and the super low mortality rates the industry is able to achieve should be proof of that,” Ms Murray said. “Everyone has pushed hard to see what the best results were for voyages of live export animals, and we’ve gotten there. “The industry pushes hard to do their best and we’re being judged on an incident that happened back in 2017. “There’s a frustration amongst the farmers as they’ve worked hard with their livestock as well, and it (the incident) affected their business.” Mr Caldwell said the Federal Government was on a path to try to “shut down one of the best live export trading industries in the world” and that improvements in the industry since 2017 needed to be recognised. “In the past five to ten years, the improvements are extraordinary and the welfare of live exports are one of the best in the world and has a high standard and compliance, and that should continue as it is,” he said. Ms Murray said the Federal Government’s stance that the live sheep export market would be at risk two years ago had brought uncertainty and instability for everyone involved. “It’s just the uncertainty for everyone, which is the problem, because it’s knocked the confidence for most in the sheep industry,” she said. “For us, it’s just trying to figure out what the demand dynamics will be and how it’d affect business. “It’s many farmers in WA who need sheep and the land requires livestock in the system, and sheep is the best fit for most of those farmers.” She hopes that with the animal cruelty charges being dropped the industry could move forward. “I’m hoping by these charges being dropped, it can put a line through the incident and we can start talking about the improvements and performance now, rather than going back to that time,” she said. “So much has changed since that time and the jurisdiction to bring those charges were never clear, and it was just not good enough.”