Perth – As around 14,000 sheep and 2,000 cows continue to swelter aboard the stranded live-export ship MV Bahijah, which was denied permission to re-export the animals to Israel, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has erected a thought-provoking digital billboard advocating for sheep’s rights in Fremantle, Australia’s largest live export port. The billboard, created by advertising agency The Community and placed on Queen Victoria Street next to Fremantle Inner Harbour, depicts a protesting flock of sheep carrying a banner reading, “Sheep Can’t Fight for Sheep’s Rights.”
Images are available here.
“The disgusting saga unfolding off the Perth coast is yet another in a long line of national disgraces born of the horrific live-export industry,” says PETA Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “Had the Labor government done the right thing and banned live export back in 2011, when Australians first staged large-scale rallies against the industry, thousands of cows and sheep wouldn’t now be being cooked alive after weeks on rough seas.”
PETA has previously put the Albanese government on blast for dragging its feet on an election promise to ban the live export of sheep and works to inform Australians – most of whom oppose live export – about the link between live export and wool.
“Australians are rightly outraged by wool industry cruelty like mulesing and the many examples of sheep abuse documented on farms and in shearing sheds across the nation, but some still don’t realise that when their wool production slows, many sheep used for wool are forced onto cruel live-export ships to be killed in other countries, often in ways that are illegal in Australia,” says Bekhechi.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear or abuse in any other way” – notes that Australians are not powerless: choosing cruelty-free plant-wool upgrades can help spare sheep the horror of live export. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
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