The University of Queensland’s inaugural Chair of Animal Welfare has seen first-hand what live-export conditions are like for sheep and cattle.
Invited aboard the Al Messilah, a live export ship run by Rural Export &Trading, as an observer recently Professor Clive Phillips, from UQ’s School of Veterinary Science, spent four days with 25,000 sheep and 600 cattle bound from Portland in Victoria to Dubai.
Given free rein on the ship he observed the sheep and cattle at various stages of the trip and said he learnt an enormous amount of how the live export process worked.
“I was able to see the whole process from watching the animals in the feedlots at the docks to herding them on board to how they behave during transit,” he said.
“I think the industry should be commended for opening up the process for inspection.”
While not prepared to put any ethical interpretation on his observations, Professor Phillips said the journey made an excellent starting point to researching a better model for welfare measurement of animals in this situation.
“At the moment the mortality rate is the only measure of animal welfare we have,” he said.
“What we’d like to do is come up with a framework that covers a broader spectrum of appropriate welfare measures.”
He said in terms of animal husbandry the animals were treated well and better than in some farm cases but more research was required to determine the significance of these conditions to the overall welfare of the animals.
Media: For more information contact Professor Clive Phillips (telephone 07 3346 9179 or 0423 165 923) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2802).
