Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Australian Cattle Not Singled Out for Brutal Death

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I saw many buffalo, cattle and also deer, slaughtered in Indonesia during the 1970s. There was usually praying, the beast’s head was secured, and then a sharp knife used to saw through the neck. I write ‘saw’ because the neck is thick and as I watched it seemed to take time for the knife to get to the artery. Death as I watched always appeared slow and painful.

None of the incidences were as traumatic as the television footage on ABC TV Four Corners program on Monday night, but none of the animals I saw killed were stunned first.

I was exposed to these incidences because my father managed a cattle ranch and beasts were killed according to Halal custom for the many families who lived on the ranch. I also saw animals killed at local festivities, deer hunts and other events that typically involved the very public slaughter of a live animal.

The most bloody was probably a non-Moslem burial in animist Tana Toraja. I remember it as described at Wikipedia:

“Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes.”

The way animals are killed in Indonesia has much to do with culture and tradition and it is not done in a way the RSPCA or most Australians would consider humane. Indeed it is brutal.

The reality is that despite protests from animal rights activists for many years, still only a tiny percentage of Indonesian abattoirs stun the beasts before killing them. And stunning is not going to happen at cultural festivals were witnessing live slaughter is a feature of the event.

In response to the Four Corners program the Australian government has suspended live export to Indonesia. In response, Sri Mukartini, the head of animal welfare at Indonesia’s agriculture ministry, has commented, “Animal welfare is a relatively new issue in Indonesia. We’re still developing regulations.”

The bottom line is that in Indonesia, Australian cattle aren’t singled out for a brutal death. Life and death is much more brutual for many people and many animals.

Banning live export will impact on our relationship with that country, deepening the cultural divide. And frozen meat from Australia is not going to replace live exports because meat is still sold warm in markets in Indonesia because not everyone has refrigeration.

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/05/31/australia’s-ban-cattle-exports-ri-‘political’.html

http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4889049

http://www.halalfoodguide.com.au/halal.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toraja

http://www.livecorp.com.au/SingleArticle/11-05-30/Response_to_ABC_TV_s_4_Corners_Program.aspx

http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/Australia-stop-policing-live-abc-2537633490.html?x=0

The Carbon Tax: All Style no Substance?

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If the government was really serious about reducing carbon emissions it could just tax the coal industry to death.

Instead it plans to make us pay more for everything by introducing a carbon tax and then compensate us and everyone potentially disadvantaged. The concept has not caught on with the average Australian who is against it.

In an attempt to sway public opinion, Hollywood superstar, Cate Blanchett, is now appearing on television endorsing the tax.

Cate has a lot of style, but does her message have any substance? Have any readers of this blog seen the advert? What exactly is her message?

Send Tony Burke a Message

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Last Saturday, Sydney-based organisation GetUp! launched a petition to ‘Save the Murray Darling’ explaining the Basin was on the verge of ecological collapse because of over-extraction from heavy irrigators. The petition already has nearly 40,000 signatures. Getup! is intending to present the petition to Environment and Water Minister, Tony Burke.

This Saturday/today, there is a colour, quarter-page advertisement in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald (page 13) explaining that taking more water from food producers now, won’t save the Lower Lakes next drought. Murray Darling Basin

The advert also provides the url for the website www.mythandthemurray.org .

I suggest you rip the page out of the newspaper and post it to Tony Burke.

Tony Burke MP
Ministerial Office
PO Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600

You could also include a copy of this blog post: http://www.mythandthemurray.org/getup-and-visit-the-murray-darling/

If you want to fax the advert and blog post, Mr Burke’s number is (02) 6273 6101.

It is important that you can be bothered.

The Future is Not Green, But Grey: A Note from David Stockwell and Tony Cox

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THE path up the carbon tax slippery slope was made clear when Greens deputy Christine Milne said “I certainly recognize that you are going to need a price at A$40 per tonne or more to shift from coal to gas and then a higher price still for gas to renewables.” Some Greens don’t even balk at a $500 per tonne tax. The Green’s junior partner, the ALP, has confirmed that the carbon tax will keep increasing.

Subsidies for solar and wind systems are already raising the cost of electricity to consumers, and Milne affirms that renewable energy will not be at parity with coal or gas any time soon. The disadvantages of renewables are insurmountable: environmental costs due to the low power density and the unreliability of the wind and sun. In short, they do not work.

British columnist and activist, George Monboit, has elucidated the utter futility of the Green agenda and adds, “None of us yet has a convincing account of how humanity can get out of this mess.”

Speak for yourself George.

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Value Adding in Australia, The Beginning of the End: A Note from Viv Forbes

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News Alert: Smelting and refining of Mount Isa copper in Queensland to cease

The recent Xstrata decision to phase out their world class copper smelting and refining operations in Australia tells us that the taxes, processing, transport and energy costs that Xstrata expects in Australia are already uncompetitive.

The dreamers in the Canberra cocoon always drool about “value adding”. Their carbon tax will surely cause all mineral processing plants in Australia to lose value, and some will surely close. Low cost coal and diesel power will no longer support our high wages. The value adding will take place in Asia.

We are watching a slow tragedy unfold – the end of an era. Once the mineral processing plants leave, they will never come back. We will be back to the pioneering era of mining – dig it out and ship it off.

And the final tragic irony of the Isa story is this – sending partly processed copper concentrate overseas, instead of smelting it at Mount Isa, will about triple the transport burden and do the same to carbon dioxide emissions.

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The Left Mobilizes to ‘Save the Murray’

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THE left in Australia can mobile very quickly with ‘Getup’ securing over 18,000 signatures on its petition to ‘Save the Murray’ since it launched the campaign just yesterday.

The letter they sent out is full of misinformation including comment that:

“The Murray Darling Basin has been sucked dry by decades of over extraction. Despite recent rain and floods the Murray Darling Basin is on the brink of ecosystem collapse. Already over 90% of the floodplain wetlands have been destroyed along with native fish and bird populations.”

I guess the truth has never stood in the way of a good campaign?

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