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“The flow-on impact of this decision simply cannot be underestimated and couldn’t come at a worse time with many Western Australian farmers battling severe drought,” VFF President Emma Germano said.<\/p>\n
“Undoubtably there will be direct impacts, none-the-less the livelihoods and generational farmers that have been destroyed. That is devastating and the mental health impacts will sadly be enormous.<\/p>\n
“Decisions like this don’t actually improve animal welfare outcomes. It’s ignoring the fact that Australian farmers are world-leaders in animal welfare practices and are regulated using science-based methods.”<\/p>\n
Local Fiskville sheep farmer Scott Young agrees with Ms Germano.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely going to impact us, it’s going to take away a market for Western Australian producers, and those animals will then flow on to the eastern states,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The biggest concern I have is that the decision has been made despite the industry improving since the incident in 2017 [where around 2400 sheep died on the Awassi Express].<\/p>\n
“The industry realised it wasn’t up to scratch, and made a whole suite of improvements.<\/p>\n
“The industry has very low mortality rates and is valuable for many farmers across Australia\u2026our concern is also what’s next on the Government’s agenda, if an industry like this can be closed down in this way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FARMERS and farm advocacy groups have raised concerns over a recent announcement by the Federal Government, that live sheep sea exports will be banned in just a few years’ time. Earlier this month, the Government announced a $107 million Federal transition support package for the Australian sheep industry, supporting the phase out of live sheep […]<\/p>\n