'Cruel and vicious' treatment of cattle in Gaza sparks Labor call to ban exports

[shira]

Labor has called for the suspension of selected animal export licences in the wake of harrowing new footage of “cruel and vicious” treatment of Australian cattle in Gaza.

The footage, filmed by local civilians and uploaded to YouTube, shows cattle tied to poles, trees and vehicles before being stabbed in the neck and eyes. One animal was kneecapped by bullets fired from an assault rifle.

Animals Australia said the footage, filmed during a ritual called the “festival of sacrifice”, was some of the worst seen in a series of animal welfare outrages involving Australian cattle. The animal welfare group has sent the footage to MPs and senators and has lodged a legal complaint about alleged breaches of the live export code. It is the third such complaint in three months, following similar scenes of cruelty in Jordan and Mauritius.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the Australian firm Livestock Shipping Services is the only supplier with an approved supply chain into the Palestinian territories.

more @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/cruel-vicious-treatment-cattle-gaza

[jessie04]

1. That's just f**king sick.

You should have put a warning on the OP.

I hate seeing that .

[azurnoir]

2. slick little piece of Islamophobia the "ritual of sacrifice" is actually Eid al-Adha

commenorating the end of the Haj this year it was 10/3-10/4

and I thought the quote "video taken by civilians" to be a special touch all its own as it implies the actions in the video were being committed by terrorists but here is the reality

Eid al-Adha

Type Islamic
Significance Commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his young, first-born, and only son in obedience of a command from God
Marks the end of the annual Hajj to Mecca

Celebrations Gatherings of family and friends, meals (especially lunches and late breakfasts), wearing new clothes, giving gifts

Observances Eid prayers, sacrificing usually a sheep, cow, goat, buffalo or camel, giving away about one-third of the meat to friends and neighbors, and donating one-third or more of it to the poor and needy

This page was last modified on 13 December 2013 at 16:22.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

[oberliner]

3. "...slick little piece of Islamophobia"

You are once again seeing things that are not there.

Nothing "...implies the actions in the video were being committed by terrorists" as you claim.

Simply put, it's a tradition that certain animal rights groups finds to be deplorable.

There is nothing "phobic" about it. Are no religious practices allowed to be criticized?

[azurnoir]

4. yesssss of course I'm just imagining stuff

"video taken by civilians implies nothing

that it is a religious observance where most of the meat is given away to family and the needy somehow just gets left out all quite innocently too

tell me do you a bridge for sale with that bit?

eta the manner in which this is presented could be considered a sort of blood libel

[Sarah Ibarruri]

27. No, you're not "imagining" stuff.

You're simply making it clear that you want anyone of the Muslim religion to be permitted to do any d___d thing and not be called on it. The non-Muslim world? Yeah, they can be called on it.

[azurnoir]

31. I haven't said a word about the non-muslim world

or anything else other than this video
and let's here some of your feeling about Muslims/Palestinians what are they?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

43. Every one of your posts

Is in defense of anything whatsoever that Muslims choose to do. Ergo, you give the impression that you want Muslims to be the one class that is exculpated of anything and everything they do wrong. If that's not the impression you intend to give, then you certainly need to stop being johnny-on-the-spot in defense of anything Muslims do wrong, OR, be johnny-on-the-spot defending what non-Muslims do. You can't have it both ways and think people won't notice what you're doing.

[azurnoir]

45. why didn't you answer my question about your own opinion of Palestinians and Muslims?

and just who do you think you are telling me what I need to do? and once again lets hear your opinion about Muslims and Palestinians or perhaps you're worried for some reason? or just engaging in a strange sort of projection?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

46. I'm telling you that if you play apologist for the Palestinians and Muslims, and forgive them for

everything they do wrong, do not come whining about how someone has responded unkindly to your apologist post. But I think I already explained that. I'm merely paraphrasing it again. Do you need me to paraphrase it one more time?

[azurnoir]

47. once again why don't you share with us what is your opinion about Muslims and Palestinians?

or are you here simply to attack me? You seem to have little else to say, why is that? paraphrase what have you paraphrased? Why do you need to paraphrase?

[shaayecanaan]

38. Wow, a casual!! Havent seen one of them in ages.

You used to see them occasionally. Not for a while though.

Totally agree with the post though. In fact I am lobbying my local member to pass legislation to that exact effect. Next year I hope I can ride down the main street in a big Muslim parade float with banners and shit while I sit on the back ripping the heads off baby kittens with my teeth.

[azurnoir]

39. and I'll approve wholeheartedly so much so in fact

that given a few months warning I could possibly supply you with baby kittens......







cause ya just never know we have some spin masters here

[shaayecanaan]

5. The Animal rights groups want to ban live exports...

That is the headline of the article. There has been a lot of heat about it in Australia for a long time now.

The real cruelty is in the transport. The cattle are packed onto ships and as long as conditions are not quite bad enough to make them die, the operators are satisfied.

The funny thing is that the same live export trade that supplies cattle to Gaza also supplies cattle to a certain country to the immediate north. Hasbarados are a pretty dumb lot, as a rule, so I wonder if they have stopped to think this one through.

Of course, the animal rights group have the same objections to kosher slaughter as they do to halal slaughter, for sound reasons. The two processes are essentially the same.

[shira]

8. So the leftwing Guardian is now into Hasbarado propaganda?

And a little perspective here:

You think the slaughter going on in the video is essentially the same thing as kosher ritual slaughter?

For reals?

[shaayecanaan]

9. I dont think I'd be terribly keen on either, if I were the cow...

Even regular commercial slaughter can be unpleasant:-

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/usda-slaughterhouse-cows-shot-torture.html

[shira]

7. 2 deflections in one thread. Makes you wonder what legit criticism would look like....

...regarding anything that happens in the territories.

[shira]

6. So there's nothing to condemn in that video? It's just a cultural/religious thing?

I think the very leftwing Guardian would be surprised to hear that this article is Islamophobic.

[jessie04]

10. A request.

Next time you post something so heinous and unconscionable , please post a major warning.

[shaayecanaan]

25. Enjoy your burgers

I thought that the title and byline made it pretty clear.

[Jefferson23]

11. Nothing to condemn? You intended this post for one select group.

Animal rights activists fight abuse, electrocution of lambs and calves

The organization Anonymous for Animal Rights filed complaints with the police, and the Agriculture and Environmental Protection ministries on Wednesday demanding an investigation into the abuse of calves and lambs.

This after a report on the subject that Channel 10 aired on Tuesday night.


Video footage, documented by a researcher for Anonymous, shows workers whipping calves and lamps as they are being unloaded in Eilat from Australian ships on June 15, destined for large Israeli meat companies such as Tnuva and Debach. Later, the researcher documents workers using electric shockers on some of the animals while loading them onto trucks headed to Tnuva’s Adom Adom slaughterhouse in Beit She’an.

Animal rights organizations in Australia filed a similar complaint with local authorities.

“It is absurd to transport animals on an arduous journey tossed on ships from the other end of the world to be fattened and slaughtered in Israel,” said Hagai Cohen, from Anonymous for Animal Rights.

The researcher had installed a camera on a mountain opposite the Port of Eilat, documenting the unloading of the 25,000 animals from ships and onto trucks – a process that lasted about 40 hours in the heat, according to Anonymous.

Revealing serious abuse, the video shows workers beating the animals all over their bodies, including their heads, and throwing the lambs from a great height.

“All of this occurred in plain sight of an Agriculture Ministry inspector,” the Channel 10 report says.

After following the trucks carrying the animals for about 3 km., the Anonymous researcher recorded the unloading process at the quarantine station in Kibbutz Eilot, showing repeated lashings, pulling them by the tails and the use of electric shockers.

Likewise, the researcher took footage of the animals being shocked as they were loaded onto trucks at the fattening farm at Kibbutz Beit Hashita north of Beit She’ean, on their way to Tnuva’s Adom Adom slaughterhouse. The electric shockers are used to push the animals to board the trucks faster, the Anonymous researcher explains on the Channel 10 report.

Questioned on camera about the electric shocking process inside the barn, the manager of the facility yells to the worker to cease the practice.

“Do not use that," he instructs the worker.

This documentation joins a December investigation of the Adom Adom slaughterhouse that arose after the television program Kolbotek on Channel 2 revealed serious abuse and shocking of calves and sheep at the facility. In the video evidence for that case, Adom Adom workers were shown abusing calves with a shocker, as well as beating them and dragging them by their legs onto a forklift.

Both the most recent incident and this one join a 2011 investigation that showed calves being shocked before slaughter for the company at the Zafur quarantine station at Moshav Tzofar in the central Arava, Anonymous for Animal Rights said.

Emphasizing that the abuse of the animals “is only exacerbated after their docking on Israeli shores,” Cohen from Anonymous said the Agriculture Ministry was failing to properly monitor the actions of the country’s meat companies. He called for consumers to “choose not to fund this cruelty” and to actively boycott Israel’s meat industry.

The Agriculture Ministry said it conducts extensive operations in all matters related to animal welfare, noting that the ministry promoted the approval of animal welfare regulations regarding the transportation of livestock and prevention of their suffering during the process. The regulations prohibit the use of strength or electric shockers against the animals except in cases with reasonable cause, and all transport of animals must occur in the presence of a supervisor or driver trained by the ministry, the office continued.

More than 500 drivers and escorts have been trained in Agriculture Ministry courses designed to minimize animal suffering, which has led to significant reductions in transport abuse, the ministry said.

During the unloading of the ship in Eilat in the Channel 10, inspectors from the Agriculture Ministry and a government veterinarian took part in the unloading process, which lasted three days, according to the ministry. As part of the process, the inspectors examined the trucks that would transport the calves and lambs, ensuring that they were clean and enabling the continued transfer the animals without delay, the ministry said.

“The Agriculture Ministry asked the reporter to transfer to the office the photos in his hands,” the ministry said. “They have not been received, and we would like to receive them in order to take action on the subject. Veterinary Services in the Agriculture Ministry calls for all citizens to contact the office with any suspected violation of the Animal Welfare Law.”
http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Animal-rights-activists-fight-abuse-electrocution-of-lambs-and-calves-321707

[Dick Dastardly]

28. There is plenty to condemn such as the bigotry you and others show against one select group.

We should not forget about plants rights. The cruel treatment and slaughter of plants needs
to be stopped. Supporting animal rights but not plants rights is bigotry.

[Jefferson23]

29. Alrighty. n/t

[azurnoir]

12. Doesn't wash the guardisn is not a leftwing publication as you claim

it is simply a newspaper that prints what sells

and of course you see nothing with the manner in which this was presented and once again I felt the the "video taken by civilians" quote to be especially 'rich'

[oberliner]

13. The paper's readership is generally on the mainstream left

The paper's readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion: a MORI poll taken between April and June 2000 showed that 80% of Guardian readers were Labour Party voters;[103] according to another MORI poll taken in 2005, 48% of Guardian readers were Labour voters and 34% Liberal Democrat voters.[104] The newspaper's reputation as a platform for liberal and left-wing opinions has led to the use of the epithet "Guardian reader" as a label for middle-class people holding such views,[105][106] or sometimes as a negative stereotype of such people as middle class, earnest and politically correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#Political_stance_and_editorial_opinion

[azurnoir]

14. yes which shows exactly why they thought this might wash

sorry some plans no matter how well laid just don't work out

[oberliner]

40. Oliver Milman writes primarily on environmental issues, including animal welfare

He's written about similar situations in Australia and elsewhere.

[azurnoir]

15. the talkbacks to the article show the desired effect on at least one reader

rickydicky

12 December 2013 8:44am
Recommend
28

Disgusting. I grew up on a farm and we ate our own cattle but we never treated a beast with such lack of respect. Any sympathy I felt for the Palestinian cause has just disappeared.

'cause folks that is exactly what its about

[oberliner]

16. Animals Australia has been promoting this cause for years

Australians say no to live export as the Festival of Sacrifice commences in the Middle East

The largest single petition ever lodged with the Rudd Government's Petitions Committee includes the signatures of over 34,000 Australians opposed to live animal exports to the Middle East. The huge box of petitions arrived this week just as Australian sheep and cattle are being bought to be cruelly handled and slaughtered for the Eid Al Adha 'Festival of Sacrifice' in importing countries in the Middle East.

Previously more than 225,000 signatures have been tabled in the Senate over several years. Today's tally of 34,068 to the new House of Representatives Petitions Committee and 208 to the Senate (tabled by Senator Siewert), brings the cumulative tally to over 259,000 Australians' signatures in opposition to the cruel export of animals to the Middle East

Animals Australia Executive Director Glenys Oogjes said today,
"Animals Australia chose this week to present further petitions because tragically Australian sheep and cattle are currently being yarded in the Middle East to be sold and killed during the Eid al Adha.. This three day 'Festival of Sacrifice' represents the peak time for animal suffering in the Middle East.

"Our investigators have during past Eid 'slaughterfests' documented traumatised Australian sheep being dragged by their horns and fleece, tied up, thrown onto trucks or shoved into car boots before being 'sacrificed' by having their throats cut whilst fully conscious. Despite this clear evidence of cruelty, the Australian Government allows the supply of many hundreds of thousands of sheep specifically for this festival each year.

"Despite strong community opposition, the live export of animals to the Middle East continues. Each year some 30,000 to 40,000 sheep sicken and die on the ships during the journey. That Australia continues to value the profits of a small number of live exporters over our international reputation as a caring society is a national disgrace", concluded Ms Oogjes.

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/media/press_releases.php?release=128

[azurnoir]

17. yes I know but is that not the subject of the article though

but I'm sure your efforts at clean-up are appreciated

[Jefferson23]

18. lol

[oberliner]

22. Yes it is

Only in your mind is it anything else.

And a few of your compatriots, I should add!

[azurnoir]

23. this article focus's only on Palestinians never mentions it is a religous observance and then

claims and this is the 'reveal' that the video was shot by 'civilians'

[shira]

19. Do you actually see an article like this as an attempt at delegitimization?

If so, should these events have been censored and not reported at all?

[azurnoir]

20. perhaps they should be reported within their proper context

rather than such a thinly disguised attempt at demonization

[shira]

21. How so? What should the headline or subtext have said differently?

Also, are you against this type of demonization against Israel, because I don't ever see you coming out against such demonization when Israel is the target...

[azurnoir]

24. Perhaps the statement about the video being filmed by 'civilians' should have been left

out for starters exactly what was that meant to imply?

[shira]

26. That's it? The mention of a civilian filming the event?

I don't see why you think that implies terrorists were carrying out the torture and killing of these animals.

The Guardian doesn't even define Hamas or Islamic Jihad as terrorists, but rather militants.

[azurnoir]

32. who were the non-civilians shira? it was a religious observation the presentation in this video

was as bigoted as the claims of child sexual abuse during a Bris were

[oberliner]

41. The Guardian has articles exploring whether circumcision is a form of child abuse

Here's one from last year:

Circumcision: the cruellest cut?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/28/circumcision-the-cruellest-cut

[azurnoir]

42. That's not what I was speaking of

I was speaking of something else Metzitzah B'Peh to be exact some of claims I read about that were sheer bigotry

[shaayecanaan]

30. Incidentally, for those who care...

there is an article in Rolling Stone currently about the horrific conditions at US factory farms:-

http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

[oberliner]

33. Go Veggie!

Keep spreading the word!

[azurnoir]

34. Seems your quite familar with Eid al-Adha

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113419795

the comments are ummm spectacular

[oberliner]

35. Indeed - it is a pretty horrifying practice

Much like what goes on in slaughterhouses.

Vegetarianism is the way to go!

[azurnoir]

36. Islam is a horrific practice? This was a religious festival

would you say the same about Judaism as there are Kosher slaughter houses that use very similar methods in slaughetring animals

[oberliner]

37. The inhumane slaughtering of animals is

Whether in the name of Islam, Judaism, or factory farms.

Kosher slaughter houses are actually some of the worst offenders.