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Meatworkers joins forces with animal welfare activists
Written by LORNA EDWARDS
Created Wednesday, 10 March 2010
LORNA EDWARDS
March 10, 2010 - 12:54PM
THE AUSTRALIAN meatworkers union has formed an unlikely alliance with animal welfare activists opposing the live export trade.
The Australian Meat Industry Employees Union said live exports were crippling the meat processing industry and costing jobs in regional Australia at a joint press conference with the World Society for the Protection of Animals at NSW Parliament House this morning.
Union president Grant Courtney said abattoirs around Australia were forced to close or cut their workforce due to competition for livestock from the federally subsidised live export trade.
The industry had already lost 40,000 jobs and 150 meat-processing plants in the past three decades, Mr Courtney said.
"I can't understand why the Government is sticking its head in the sand when thousands of Australian jobs are being lost due to this trade," he said.
WSPA's program manager Emily Reeves said the Federal Government should halt the live export trade for both economic and animal welfare reasons.
Despite recent federal government attempts to improve animal welfare in export countries, she said a recent investigation in the Middle East had gathered video footage showing that cruelty and mishandling of Australian animals continued.
"We've got the economic data to show live export is bad business, we've got a rural industry crippled through poorly thought-out Government policy and we've got yet more proof that Australian animals are being handled and slaughtered in a way that would horrify Australians," Ms Reeves said.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/meatworkers-joins-forces-with-animal-welfare-activists-20100310-pxfb.html
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