No animal has been or is checked by trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors at any point along the “live export chain.” No transport of animals destined for live export has been or is inspected at any time during by trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors at any point along the “live export chain.” No facility such as accredited export feedlot which house animals for live export was or is inspected at any time by trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors, There has been no trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors monitoring animal transport, handling and loading at the Port of Fremantle since July 2009. There has been no inspection of animals, which are destined for domestic slaughter for animal welfare by trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors since July 2009 WHY? Because the State Government Minister responsible for animal welfare has decided despite the huge number of animal cruelty complaints the Animal Welfare Unit receives daily, he is “satisfied” that 1 Animal Welfare Inspector can manage the complaints, investigate cruelty cases, inspect sale yards, transports and live exports, can assist with immediate calls for assistance, educate the farmed animal industry in the requirements of the law and co ordinate prevention of cruelty. The intent of the West Australian Animal Welfare Act 2002 states: 3. Content and intent (2) This Act intends to — (a) promote and protect the welfare, safety and health of animals; (b) ensure the proper and humane care and management of all animals in accordance with generally accepted standards; and (c) reflect the community's expectation that people who are in charge of animals will ensure that they are properly treated and cared for. If we have no trained State Animal Welfare Inspectors how can the Government demonstrate that they “ensure the proper and humane care and management of all animals in accordance with generally accepted standards and; are doing everything they can to ensure animals are “properly treated and cared for”? In 2007, the Animal Welfare Unit Inspectorate was established because the charity to which the Government outsourced the enforcement of animal welfare laws was unable/unwilling to deal with the problems within the farmed animal industry. Behind the scenes: we have been informed that extremely heavy lobbying by farmer groups commenced immediately after the Animal Welfare Unit law enforcement Inspectorate was created. The lobby groups saw the totally independent Inspectorate as a major‘problem' because they operated without fear nor favour whilst demonstrating clearly they would enforce animal welfare legislation. They would prevent cruelty and prosecute those who were allegedly cruel to farmed animals. The Inspectorate have secured 3 successful prosecutions (Dawson, Rodway & Doak) 2 of which are for cases that are ‘firsts' in the state- possibly the country. This is not because these types of cases never occurred before- it is because the previous authority would never prosecute for fear of upsetting the farm industry. The farmed animal industry didn't want their abysmal animal treatment and dreadful transport practices to be exposed and sought help by lobbying the then government to close the law enforcement Inspectorate down. It didn't work. The Animal Welfare Unit Inspectorate continued until a change of Government saw the farmer friendly Liberals along with farmer based Nationals came to power in 2009. Our sources tell us that the Liberals agreed with the Nationals (farmer political group) and all funding to the Inspectorate has ceased so currently there is absolutely NO state animal welfare monitoring in any way shape or form by a state authority. This means there are NO measures taken to PREVENT cruelty. When a cruel act occurs there is no one to deal with it either immediately or if at all. The animal is left to suffer where it stands or collapses. As for follow up- there is none. Australia says it has the highest standards of animal welfare – this is pure and absolute fiction. The truth is the authorities and farmed animal industry is unable to substantiate such claims because there is no state animal welfare law enforcement system. BM
