THE RSPCA is renewing calls for a ban on slaughter practices that don’t use stunning for sheep and cattle if the Government does not move to reform current exemptions granted for religious reasons.

The RSPCA want legislative reforms to the exemptions granted by State governments ahead of a complete halt to slaughter practices not using stunning in both live export and domestic abattoirs.

RSPCA chief scientist, Dr Bidda Jones, said State and Federal governments had so far failed to take satisfactory action and implement transparency reforms to change practices for the 250,000 Australian sheep, lambs, goats and cattle slaughtered each year for the Halal and Kosher markets.

Dr Jones wants the Federal Government to make a clear commitment on animal welfare problems caused by slaughter without stunning.

She says details are lacking about the number of animals involved in the exemptions and difficulties locating information on which abattoirs were conducting un-stunned religious slaughter practices.

A NSW abattoir the Hawkesbury region, which had its operations suspended earlier this year by the NSW Food Authority due to animal welfare concerns, was slaughtering sheep without stunning for local Halal and Kosher markets.

The RSPCA has written to Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig in the past month, urging him to address un-stunned religious slaughter and reform the current system.

A high-level Animal Welfare Committee was recently formed following a meeting of State and Federal primary industries ministers in Adelaide last month.

Dr Jones says the Australian livestock industry is uncomfortable with the practice of un-stunned slaughter, even for religious reasons, but wasn’t keen to discuss the issue publicly.

Sheepmeat Council of Australia CEO Ron Cullen said his organisation encouraged stunning before slaughter in both international and domestic markets.

But he says current laws were satisfactory in Australia to cover the 250,000 animals un-stunned for religious purposes, as the regulations meet World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standards, and argues religious and animal welfare demands can coexist.

He supports calls for greater transparency around the exemptions.

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Sydney, Australia: Australia has its first “Halal friendly pharmacy” with a retail pharmacy in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba introducing a line of Halal certified medicines.

In what may herald a new niche in the competitive retail pharmacy market, Phramcy 4 Less Lakemba is aiming to change the retail landscape and fulfill a growing demand from a large segment of Muslim consumers requesting medicines that are Halal.

Just like Halal certified food (Halal meaning “permissible”), Halal certified medicines will fulfill the Islamic rulings that they have no ingredients that are alcohol or pork based or derived, and that any animal based ingredients must be derived from an animal killed in accordance with a Halal slaughtering process.

For strict Muslims who are conscious of the Halal status of everything they put into their bodies, a simple trip to the pharmacy to get medicine can sometimes turn into a long and arduous process. Many will ask the pharmacists questions and meticulously read the ingredients listed to try and ascertain the Halal status of the medicine they are purchasing.

Forat Sultan, one of the owners of Pharmacy 4 Less explained the idea behind this new initiative.

“More and more customers kept coming in and asking for Halal Medicines because its important for them to know that what they are consuming does not compromise their beliefs”.

The introduction is the fruit of a new organization, Halal Certified Medicine (HCM), which has undertaken the task of trying to alleviate the dilemma faced by many Australian Muslims by providing a service that identifies which medicines are Halal or Haram (impermissible).

Unlike traditional Halal certifiers that would be engaged at the manufacturing stage and certify that the product is made in accordance with Halal standards, HCM simply checks the ingredients of the currently available medicines and ascertains whether they are Halal or not.

Even if they were not intended to be certified Halal when manufactured, products that are found to be in compliance with Islamic standards are deemed “Halal” and labelled on the shelves with a “HCM” logo sticker.
The intention is to make it easy for Muslim consumers to identify which medicines are Halal and which are not.

“The Halal Certified Medicine initiative is great for me because it means i don’t have to answer all the questions about which Medicine is Halal, its made easy for customers now, they need to just simply look for the HCM logo sticker on the shelves and choose” said Sultan.

“For Australian Muslims who take Halal seriously, there really is no excuse now when purchasing Medicine. We are proud to say that Pharmacy 4 Less in Lakemba is Australia’s 1st Halal Friendly Pharmacy” he added.

Anticipating a success with the “Halal” medicine concept at the Pharmacy 4 Less Lakemba store, HCM is looking to expand its services to other pharmacies.

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An interview with a woman who is showing her concern about foods that are certified Halal but not labeled Halal for consumers.

Australia Halal certification report

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THE live export industry is facing fresh pressure to clean up its act with new vision of cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs uncovered by animal activists, despite strict new rules for exporters being in place for nearly six months.
The fresh allegations will place pressure on Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig – who was criticised for mishandling the controversy last year – ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle.

The footage, seen by The Age, includes a slaughterman at Temur Petir stabbing at the face of a cow with a blunt metal file while it is in a restraint box. The animal jumps onto its hind legs as it attempts to climb out of the box. Animals Australia is confident the abattoir is part of an accredited supply chain.

The video, a complaint and a report from the RSPCA was handed to the agriculture department last Friday who are now investigating. RSPCA chief scientist Bidda Jones identified dozens of breaches of the new supply chain assurance rules, which were introduced to protect animal welfare following the crisis last year.

The breaches include; failing to check the animal is dead before processing its body, keeping the animal in restraint for too long, interfering with the wounds after the throat cut and hosing the animal with water prior to and just after the throat cut.

At a second, run-down, abattoir in Cakung an animal is put into the banned Mark I restraint box to be slaughtered, as workers restrain the animal it repeatedly bashes its head on a concrete plinth.

<http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r779740_6700498.jpg>
An Indonesian restraint box used for holding cattle supplied my MLA at the cost of millions and is quite useless.

“The idea that Australian cattle are being slaughtered in Mark I boxes, after they were proven to be inhumane last year, is appalling,” Dr Jones said.

The group does not believe Cakung could be part of an accredited supply chain given it is in a run down state and use of “appalling slaughter practices”, but has serious concerns that Australian cattle are going there anyway.

It has based this view on information from the investigator who saw ear tags that may relate to an Australian exporter as well as the slaughter of one animal that resembled an Australian breed of cattle – local cattle are much smaller.

Animals Australia’s campaign director Lyn White told The Age that it was clear the new regulatory system cannot and would not provide protection for Australian cattle.

“The government hoped that this new system would quell public concerns. It has failed its first independent test,” Ms White said.

She believes 62 abattoirs have been approved to slaughter and she said to suggest that there would be daily compliance with basic standards of welfare in all slaughterhouses was “ludicrous.”

Ms White said there needed to be more severe penalties.

A meat industry source said Caking was a large, old, government-owned abattoir in East Jakarta. It was highly unlikely that it was Australian cattle being slaughtered there, he said.

Temu Petir was a newer abattoir in north Jakarta. The source said he believed whatever wrongdoing the video showed were “not major animal welfare incidents, but they are things that are going to require corrective actions”.

Critic of the industry and Labor MP Melissa Parke agrees with Animals Australia that there needs to be harsher penalties for breaches.

“This will be a test for the new regulatory regime. I continue to hold the view that pre-slaughter stunning should be mandatory and that there should be clear and serious consequences for breaches of the exporter supply chain assurance system,” she said.

Senator Ludwig, the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council and the Cattle Council all acknowledged the investigation but declined to comment on the allegations until the inquiry was complete.

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon last night seized on the fresh evidence saying it should be the responsibility of the Australian government to monitor and audit the abattoirs.

“Instead it is left to courageous and committed animal rights activists such as Animals Australia to expose the continuing cruelty in the live export industry,” she said.

Senator Rhiannon called on the government to put more resources into monitoring live exports.

“To maintain any public confidence in the system, the government needs to apply the full force of sanctions in this instance. Ultimately live exports should be banned.”

Last Friday, Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Phillip Glyde said officers in the department are reviewing footage of the alleged animal welfare issues and are checking if the abattoirs operate under an exporter supply chain assurance system.

He said the embassy had informed relevant officials in Indonesia of the receipt of the complaint.

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Kentmaster Australia s operations manager Scott Booth and sales manager Warren Farr, with one of the stunners being supplied to Indonesian abattoirs.

Warren Farr, the sales manager of Brisbane-based stunning equipment supplier Kentmaster Australia, says arrangements were already in place with its Indonesian agent, Pt. Agro Giri Perkasa (AGP), to introduce mandatory preslaughter stunning as a supply requirement well before the Federal Government suspended the trade for a month based on Indonesian abattoir cruelty allegations.

Mr Farr said a supply order for pneumatic non-penetrating stunners was lodged by their Indonesian agent months before the airing of animal cruelty on ABC Television which led to the devastating trade halt. He said the stunners were destined for several Indonesian abattoirs that process Australian cattle, not only to improve animal welfare but to help enhance productivity gains and improve worker safety.

“It was at the time recognised that the benefits to do so weren’t just an animal welfare issue, but also encompassed other aspects such as slaughter floor/staff safety, animal handling, halal, religious and cultural beliefs, lack of refrigeration facilities and meat quality,” he said. “With the announcement of the Farmer report and the Government stating it will introduce all 14 recommendations, a number of interested parties in the supply chain (as stated in the media), are concerned that mandatory preslaughter stunning was not one of the recommendations, and believe that the Government needs to open discussion with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) as soon as possible to have this introduced.”

Mr Farr said he was heartened by a report in the September 29 edition of Queensland Country Life that highlighted the growing acceptance of preslaughter stunning within the Indonesian beef supply chain.

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In a speech to Parliament yesterday, backbencher Luke Simpkins said most Australians did not know that most of the meat they ate came from animals killed in accordance with Muslim law.

“By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon us without us knowing,” Mr Simpkins told Parliament.

Mr Simpkins said he had carried out an unofficial survey in his northern-suburbs electorate of Cowan and had discovered that most meat at major chains such as Coles or Woolworths had been killed under Halal conditions, but had not been labelled as such.

He tabled a petition demanding that all Halal meat be clearly identified, complaining people could not buy meat for their “Aussie barbecue” without the influence of the “minority religion”.

Mr Simpkins said that Mohammed the prophet of Islam had talked of how the religion could be expanded around the world by getting people to eat Halal meat.

He reportedly said, ‘The non-believers will become Muslims when, amongst other things, they eat the meat that we have slaughtered’. This is one of the key aspects to converting non-believers to Islam,” Mr Simpkins said.

The petition tabled by Mr Simpkins had been organised by the Barnabas Fund, an organisation that supports Christians living in Muslim countries.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott should pull Mr Simpkins into line.

“All members of Parliament should be looking to promote understanding and harmony between religions. Mr Simpkins has done the complete opposite,” he said.

Nick Butterly, Canberra, The West Australian

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By James Nason -Beef Central

Exemptions that allow some Australian abattoirs to conduct ritual slaughters without prior stunning will continue, after the country’s agriculture ministers last week failed to resolve discussions on calls for their withdrawal.

Federal, State and Territory agriculture ministers from Australia and New Zealand met in Melbourne last Friday to discuss a range of issues at the 21st meeting of the Primary Industries Ministerial Council.

On the agenda was calls by animal welfare groups for exemptions that allow 12 Australian abattoirs to slaughter animals without prior stunning on religious and cultural grounds.

In a communique released after its meeting, the council said ministers had reviewed the results of a two-year consultation process with stakeholders and had considered the science involved and the views of religious groups.

However the ministers did not reach an agreement on the issue, and the council said discussions will continue with the religious groups “in order to settle an applicable risk management framework”.

It is understood that up to 250,000 animals are killed without prior stunning in Australia every year under the religious slaughter exemptions.

The RSPCA said stunning was accepted by the Islamic community and Jewish community and no reason existed for un-stunned slaughter to continue.

It accused agriculture ministers of cowardice in not reaching a decision.

“These ministers have at hand the overwhelming evidence that cutting the throats of conscious animals is cruel and causes significant pain and suffering,” RSPCA Australia Scientific Officer, Melina Tensen said.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry argues that slaughtering methods authorised by halacha (shechita) have been an integral part of Jewish life for 3000 years, and that shechita has been accepted in civilised societies for centuries as a humane way of slaughtering livestock for consumption.

Its holds that pre-slaughter stunning of animals renders such animals unfit for Kosher consumption, which would make it impossible to produce Kosher meat and would threaten the viability of the Jewish community.

Attempts at the banning of shecita were historically associated with attempts to delegitimise Jewish religious practices and had long been a manifestation of anti-semitism, the council’s policy states.

Jewish communities were committed to cooperating with animal welfare officers to ensure that Kosher slaughter met the highest industry standards.

Halal slaughter expert Dr Mohammed Lotfi from Australian Halal Food Services told Beef Central earlier this year that the focal point of the Islamic slaughtering process was on the humane treatment of animals.

Dr Lotfi said the use of stunning as an animal welfare measure prior to slaughter was an acceptable procedure under Halal slaughtering techniques. Halal is Arabic for “lawful” or “permissible” and describes what is fit for Muslims to eat, and is based on an interpretation of the Quran, the Muslim scripture.

Under the Australian Government Muslim Slaughter program system, non-penetrating Percussive stunning was used in the Halal slaughter of cattle for all export Muslim markets.

The use of non-penetrating Percussive stunning complied with the Halal requirement that the animal must be alive at the time of slaughter. For this to be determined the animal’s heart must be beating when it is slaughtered.

Dr Lotfi said that under Islamic slaughtering law:

• Any form of ill-treatment of animals is prohibited;
• Animals should be well-fed and watered;
• Only healthy animals can be slaughtered;
• Animals should not be slaughtered in front of one another;
• Pregnant animals should not be slaughtered;
• Calves should not be slaughtered in front of their mothers and vice versa;
• Only very sharp knives should be used for the slaughtering;
• Slaughtering should be done in one cut and as fast as possible.

Ministers meeting last Friday were also unable to reach a resolution on discussions surrounding the appropriate feeding of bobby calves on the way to slaughter.

“800,000 dairy calves are trucked to slaughter every year and it is inexcusable that we still don’t have a legally enforceable standard to help ensure their welfare,” RSPCA scientific officer Melina Tensen said.

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Currently, some abattoirs are allowed to slaughter animals without stunning under exemptions for kosher and halal meat.

The slaughterhouses with exemptions are in Victoria, NSW and South Australia.

RSPCA Australia scientific officer Melina Tensen says the Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig should stop the export of non-stunned meat.

“We think the majority of unstunned slaughter is actually destined for export,” she said.

“Even just ruling out the export market would mean that most of the animals currently not being stunned prior to slaughter would actually have to be stunned.”

Senator Ludwig has confirmed that tomorrow’s ministerial meeting in Melbourne will discuss religious exemptions from stunning, but he won’t comment on what might be decided.

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Holista Colltech, an Australian Stock Exchange listed company, extended the sponsorship to USM to produce the world’s first halal enzyme production process.

The sponsorship presentation ceremony witnessed by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was also attended by Holista Colltech chief executive officer, Datuk Dr M. Rajen and USM Vice-Chancellor Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak.

Dr Rajen said the research cooperation with USM was hoped to result in an innovative process to enable plant-based enzymes to produce collagen and halal gelatine.

“We are happy to be able to support the growth of the country’s biotechnology sector and believe that it can further help the industry,” he told reporters.

Holista Colltech is a research-driven biotechnology company that produces first class natural material and health products.

– BERNAMA

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