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Tim Dower: We've put the issue of live exports on hold for too long

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 4 Sep 2020, 10:07AM
The Gulf Livestock 1 departed Napier on August 14 and is now reported to be missing. Photo / Tony des Landes

Tim Dower: We've put the issue of live exports on hold for too long

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 4 Sep 2020, 10:07AM

Things aren't looking good for the remaining crew of the Gulf Livestock 1.

Two New Zealanders in a crew of 43.

And not good at all for nearly 6000 cattle...which, let's face it, wouldn't have stood a chance.

The ship was off Japan and almost at its destination after nearly three weeks at sea.

Three weeks...in a cage...on a ship rolling about in the Pacific.

The reality is that transporting live animals by sea in cages stacked high up on each other...is pretty close to barbaric.

We tolerate putting cows onto trucks because the journeys are by regulation short, and the rules around conditions on the truck, and the people who can be in this business are strict.

There's a 50 page guide, covering everything from what they should and shouldn't eat before they travel, to the design of the space they're in, how they're loaded and a lot more.

That same guide also applies to preparing animals for travel by sea, and managing them.

But there's a hell of a difference between a few hours on a stock truck, and three weeks on the ocean.

Many don't make it...stress and fatigue claims them on the way.

For the cows on the Gulf Livestock 1...drowned in their cages with no hope of getting out...bloody awful.

But it's not just the journey we need to think about.

It's the conditions we're sending these animals to at the other end.

Can they expect to live out their days in fresh green pasture...as they would here...or some grotty concrete pen in an unfamiliar climate and god knows what kind of handling.

MPI has been looking at live exports on and off for a long time now...this disaster has brought a temporary halt...perhaps it'll be enough to end them, once and for all.

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