Live Export Ships

You may have read my blog posts about the Live Export Ban in Australia and the conditions that led to its initiation. If you haven’t, you may want to familiarize yourself with the issue. Read this first and this second.

Ok – now that you’re caught up. Hubsy and I have had the privilege of being hosted in Perth for the past six days – he was asked to speak at the APL/CRC Pork Roadshow so we’ve been socializing with western Australian swine producers, attending dinners and doing a little bit of sight seeing. On Saturday we went whale watching with some family friends and saw two of these: one docked and one at sea.

Live export ship docked in Fremantle, WA, AUS.

Live export ship on the Indian Ocean – Fremantle, WA, AUS.
I tried to zoom in and see if there were any animals aboard but I couldn’t really tell and hubsy couldn’t either.
It was interesting to actually see a live export ship up close – the trip from Perth to Indonesia takes about a week and a local cattle producer told us that the goal is for the cattle to not have any shrink. They said, for the most part, that they reach this goal often. It’s one thing to hear and talk about something, but quite another to see it in person.
What’s your opinion on the live export issue in Australia?
Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Comments

2 responses to “Live Export Ships”

  1. Interesting. I've heard of these ships but have never seen pictures until now.

    Brazil cut a deal with Italy to ship live feeder calves. I wonder how long that voyage is?

    Do livestock like cattle and swine get motion sickness? I know dogs and cats do. If they do get it, how is it treated? Or can it be treated?

  2. Joanne,

    I'm not sure how long that trip would be – I don't imagine it would be any longer than 2 weeks but I am not very knowledgable about tides and such. I also don't know about motion sickness in livestock but if you find out anything – let me know!