The Brutality of the Live Sheep Export Industry

As a vegan, I clearly oppose all raising of animals for slaughter, but the live sheep export industry is a particularly cruel and egregious form of animal 'husbandry'. There is much evidence to show how much the sheep suffer on these 'livestock ships', and how many die horrible deaths through the (di)stress of transit. It has been grotesque for me to watch the 'keep the sheep' (euphemism if ever there was one!) campaign in Western Australia during the Federal election. It has been borderline aggressive at times and almost as confronting as the trade itself. This was a campaign based not on the usual 'feeding the world' scenario, but purely on vested interests and profits. There are other ways of farming. 

What's more, it's a furphy to keep identifying 'the rural' with the business interests of animal farming for slaughter. 'The rural' is far more complex than this, and the descriptor rarely includes alternative farming methods, non-conservative views on land interaction, the concerns of Indigenous peoples, and the myriad points of view that make up any community ('rural', 'urban', 'hybrid' or 'fringe'). Here is a poem written in response to the aggro campaign which often segued with the almost feverish desire to dilute anti-gun ownership laws.

Graphology Causality 31

 

If I’m the asymptote

            then I’m caught

in an offset to grain-

train heavy metal

            graffiti animation

            just as the corellas

flock a turning point,

ogonek to the greater

            circle of paddock

            propaganda: e.g. ‘keep

the sheep’ when they mean

‘live export the sheep’

            for slaughter:

            articles

and determiners, aggressive

ploys of an election.

 

 

During the election campaign, I wrote to both conservative candidates in this electorate to ask them to please stop nailing placards to the roadside trees in the wheatbelt (some of the placards on trees uncommon in the region) — interestingly, the Nationals candidate was responsive and courteous, saying that she'd issue instructions for it to be stopped (and I didn't see any new nailings after this)... while the Liberal Party of Australia candidate ignored my email and the signs remain nailed to trees. 

We might strongly disagree on issues (including the above!), but if communication is not considered worthwhile (because of different views?), then a very basic courtesy of the agora is ignored, and community damaged further by such indifference. Even with those I ethically oppose, I hope for peaceful, 'informed discussion'. 

My contestation is always pacifist and inclusive, and I will dialogue with all those I oppose in respectful ways rather than deny or ignore them. We can make this better, can't we?

            John Kinsella