Perth – As the government prepares to disembark some of the 16,500 animals who have been stranded aboard the MV Bahijah live-export vessel for almost an entire month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese an angry letter pleading for the immediate closure of the live-export industry.
“Like all Australians, we are disgusted and ashamed by the stranding of thousands of animals in Perth, who after already enduring weeks on rough seas, are now trapped in a heatwave due to the myopic and uncompassionate decisions made by your cabinet,” writes senior communications advisor to PETA Australia, Emily Rice. “These living, feeling beings – like the millions of animals who have been shipped to their deaths before them – should never have been aboard any ship, let alone one bound for what was clearly already established to be a high conflict zone.”
Despite escalating conflict and danger in the Red Sea, the government gave the greenlight for the MV Bahijah to leave Perth on 5 January, carrying around 16,500 cows and sheep bound for the Middle East. The ship was then turned back but unable to dock in Perth, stranding the animals amid the heatwave in Western Australia, where temperatures soared to 39 degrees on Wednesday. Now, the government has decided to offload sick animals and allow the rest to continue to their bleak destination, meaning they will endure as many as 33 days on rough seas.
“Had the government moved to do the right thing and banned all live export back in 1980 when 40,000 sheep died at sea – or after any of the numerous other tragedies that have occurred over the decades or the many investigations into the cruelty animals endure aboard ships and at destination abattoirs – more than 2.5 million sentient individuals would have been spared,” the letter continues.
Read PETA’s full letter to Albanese here.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. The group notes that more than two out of three Australians oppose the live-export trade. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
#
The post ‘Disgusted and Ashamed’: Stranding of Animals Aboard MV Bahijah Prompts PETA to Demand Industry Shutdown – Again appeared first on PETA Australia.