Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Animal welfare

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:16): (1093) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Agriculture, and the action I seek is for MD Foods in Echuca to have their licence removed following yet more evidence of extreme animal cruelty. Hidden camera footage from the Farm Transparency Project has for the third time caught workers at this abattoir abusing goats and sheep before they are finally slaughtered. Animals in the footage are shown being beaten, thrown and dragged across a kill room floor to endure multiple attempts at stunning before their throats are slit while still fully conscious. Even after this point, sheep can be seen blinking, lifting their heads and struggling on the shackle line while continuing to show signs of life. Other animals are pinned to the ground by gate machinery, where they become squashed and panicked in the cramped space.

The footage is difficult to watch, and yet it is not at all uncommon: the Farm Transparency Project have shown the public what the industry refuses to disclose at 18 different abattoirs in less than two years. Each time the story is the same, but animal cruelty at slaughterhouses is still always dismissed. Each time footage is captured the government repeats the same standard response about following the correct channels of reporting, but there is rarely if ever at all an outcome. This slaughterhouse was reported first in 2013, again in 2016 and now again this year. It has been reported again to state and federal departments, the environmental protection agency and PrimeSafe for the exact same reasons. All that has happened following numerous complaints is a name change. In 2021 what was then known as Riverside Meats reopened as MD Foods, as we know it today. It is almost as though the operators know they can continue harming animals without any consequences at all. The disturbing nature of these breaches calls for immediate suspension of MD Foods’ operating licence while a comprehensive investigation takes place. I hope the minister can finally take action to end this cruelty.