PETA Seeks Perfection at the cost of Protection
How animal activism against live exports is hurting animals
PETA Seeks Perfection at the cost of Protection
Does PETA believe, as WAFarmers CEO Trevor Whittington suggests, that ending Australia’s live-export trade would somehow “solve the world’s animal welfare problems”? Of course not. However, it would make a significant difference (the kind of “real, positive change” Whittington claims to want) to the intelligent, sentient animals currently awaiting departure in fetid vessels or— as has been documented multiple times by investigators— being slaughtered without the stunning that Australia’s impotent laws ostensibly mandate.
Mimi Bekhechi, PETAs global campaign advisor’s, powerful opening statement, marks the latest round of debate between the Western Australia Farmers Federation (WAFarmers) and the global animal rights juggernaut, which has taken a top-down approach to addressing the global issue of ending all use of animals by humans.
Yet, as strong as her statement is, it defies common sense that a $100 million-a-year organization would focus its considerable resources on stopping the one nation in the world that is actively involved in the live export of livestock from continuing with its government sanctioned system that gives our vets and stock handlers access to the livestock handling facilities in countries as far afield as Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
For every Australian sheep and cow that is handled in these countries there are hundreds of others that follow the same supply chain that are bred locally or imported from other developing countries.
Every worker that Australia trains will handle tens of thousands of animals over their lifetime. Take the Australian livestock out of the system and the host governments will end the access that is granted to Australian trainers and compliance monitors to processing plants along with the funding that supports them.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out what that means for animal welfare, but this glaringly obvious reality is an uncomfortable truth that Mimi refuses to address.
PETA consistently points to the small number of incidents it has uncovered of livestock mistreatment, while ignoring the fact that shutting down Australia’s trade would result in worse outcomes not better. This is not a zero sum game. Their win will result in more suffering as Australian livestock are replaced by those from countries with few, if any, standards or compliance measures—a reality that Bekhechi and her fellow travellers should be honest and publicly acknowledge.
This is the classic mistake of the global progressive elite, those who live in the comfortable west who seek symbolic victories to signal their virtue, while ignoring the reality of the consequences of their actions in the real world.
What drives change is not grand ideals but the hard work of incremental change at the coal face, where people live under governments that need to be coached and encouraged to make change.
PETA debates with me but nobody in the developing world is listening to us. As PETA campaigns on the back of their win they will quickly lose interest in live exports as they know their cameras and footage will fall on deaf ears when there is no developed country with their government susceptible to emotive campaigns to target.
PETA won’t be there to point to ten inquiries into the Somalia or Sudanese, live export trade because those governments aren’t interested in animal welfare and unlike Australia don’t undertake enquiries into how animals are handled.
While PETA demands perfection from Australia, it asks nothing and invests nothing in those countries welfare systems, where the vast majority of live-exported animals will be sourced once Australia exits the trade.
Australia stands open and accountable for its standards, but PETA prefers ideals over outcomes. It’s a win-win for PETA to shut down Australia’s live trade but a lose-lose for the millions of animals that will pass through the supply chains Australia once oversaw.
It’s the same mad logic as the Defund the Police campaign in the US following the George Floyd murder, a campaign that directly resulted in more crime and violence against the very people the elites claimed they were advocating for.
No police means no protection. No Australia means no protection. According to PETA Australia’s Export Supply Chain Accreditation System (ESCAS), is feeble, as it has not prevented the few isolated incidents it has uncovered. Their solution is to give up.
Under this logic, we might as well dismiss Australia’s peacekeepers, who have been sent to over 50 nations since 1947, as no doubt in every case incidents occurred where civilians under the watch of Australian soldiers weren’t fully protected. Would PETA describe their efforts as feeble and demand the Australian government promise perfection or offer no protection.
Since we can’t deliver it, their solution is to shut down the best and ignore the rest. Their logic simply doesn’t pass the pub test.
And that brings us to the heart of the debate. Which has not really about live exports its about ideals.
“While how we slaughter animals is undeniably grim, the real issue is that we use them at all. Cow flesh and other animal-derived products aren’t essential and can be replaced with plant-based alternatives and home-grown cell-based innovations that harm no one, create jobs, and are better for the planet.”
A review of PETA’s campaign literature tells us all we need to know. PETA is an extreme animal rights organization—its all or nothing. Perfection in animal rights and welfare or no human interaction with animals at all.
This is fine, be as idealistic as you like, except for the hypocrisy of its approach to its legion of donors, many of whom keep pets for their own companionship and amusement. PETA conveniently avoids rallying against the global pet industry, because as the saying goes, never bite the hand that feeds you.
If Mimi truly believes that the “myth of human supremacy should be consigned to history” (her words), she should map out what a world without livestock or pets really looks like—and start the campaign for perfection now, then see how much money flows into PETA’s coffers.
In the meantime, in the four years left before the Australian live sheep trade ends our vets and stockies will be out there on the ground in developing countries making a difference to animal welfare.
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