Docile Entrepreneurship
If you are Australian, and you are tempted to skip over this post because it fails to rouse your interest, I beg you not to. I am not moved to battle social issues lightly, yet this has stirred such profound feelings of anger in me I can't begin to process them. I will not accept anyone's explanation that they aren't interested, or can't be bothered. Read this.
I watched Four Corners today, Monday 30th May. Their story was about Indonesian abattoirs, which are funded and supplied by several Australian breeding companies. Australian beef is popular in Indonesia for its superior quality to local meat, and a great deal of income is generated both for them and for Australian breeding companies. A reporter spent months touring hundreds of facilities in Indonesia, where Australian cattle were slaughtered. These facilities she toured expressly because many industries and commissions have "inspected these practices and compiled reports, concluding that the treatment of the cattle was fairly good, and within humane standards."
I saw footage from her own hand-held camera, of what I would objectively classify as torture. I want to make it clear, that I'm the sort who rolls their eyes at PETA enthusiasts who shriek about animal murder. I'm not a vegetarian. But this was nothing short of barbaric - it made me physically ill. I wanted to leave the room, but I forced myself to watch. I felt guilt in the pit of my stomach, a knowledge that Australia - home of the pure and free - was pumping money into this industry with a very deliberate blind eye turned to the practices they insisted upon. I believe that you, a reader who hails from a first world nation which supplies cattle to Indonesia, should likewise force yourself to learn. Read on.
The floors were concrete, sloped, and covered in bloodied water to create an intentionally slippery surface. These gargantuan beasts, big lumbering bovine, would have ropes tied around their feet, which would then be yanked from underneath them. A frenzy would begin, the cows moaning softly, pulling their legs back under themselves, attempting to stand up. They would fall over again and again, slipping, being hauled constantly by the rope. Then a particular shot focused on the agonising death of one particular cow. They were trying to drag it over to the location where their necks would be slit, when the cow fell. There was a sickening crunch as its leg broke.
The workers are whipping it all the while, as they do all the beasts to encourage them to move. They beat their faces with hard implements. A rope is secured around the cows head, with it the cow is dragged towards a pole, still struggling to stand up all the while. The whites of his eyes are visible. He is on his belly now, trembling.
I'm forcibly reminded of a lighter image... Have you ever playfully upturned a dog or puppy during play? Flipped on their back, they wriggle their bodies in a violent and brisk motion - trying to gain enough momentum to rock back onto their feet again. The cows do something similar, launching their massive bodies off the floor in a ghastly rocking manner, fueled by panic. it doesn't help them stand up but in desperation, they try anyway, mooing and calling all the while. Their heads, with each thrash, crash violently down into the floor. This happens over and over again. Continually. Tens of times. Twenty. Thirty. Slap, crash, crunch.... heads slamming into the hard floor.
The Australian cattle industry experts and CEO's were questioned about "the headslaps" which occurred so many times in the killing process. What struck me is that they, and the interviewers, all understood the term and what it meant. The way the cows viciously slam their skulls into the floor trying to stand up was a known phenomena; they discussed it as casually as statistical information. It was a common bovine response.
The cow whose leg had broken stood still in front of the film crew, resting against a wall in exhaustion. His leg dangled horribly. The workers were attempting to drag him to the pole, where his neck could be cut. He didn't move. They began beating and whipping him harder, focusing on his legs. He slipped and fell again - directly onto the broken limb. It was all I could do not to yelp as I saw this massive weight crush the broken limb at an even more distorted angle. The cow clambered about in desperation to get away, but could not. He was continually whipped, and they lent on the rope around his neck, trying to pull this massive beast towards the preferred location for the slaughter.
This effort went on for some time. The journalist who taped it said that she could hear its plaintive mooing, and said it sounded very much to her like it was crying. She said... it struck her so that the cow did not know why it was being beaten, that it could not understand the attack being inflicted on it.
Another abattoir, another cow. The "box" is introduced. The box is a new and improved slaughtering device, designed commissioned and delivered to Indonesia by Australia. Australia's name is stamped across its side. This steel box, it encloses the cow, hanging from above with a few feet clearance from the floor. The feet are tied with rope and again, the cows legs are pulled out from underneath.
The cow falls, slides out of the gap onto a slope. The frenzy begins, as described before, but with less success. Finally the neck is positioned over the grate, and the workers begin hacking at the neck. The box is the cattle industry's answer to animal rights groups. It is a 'humane' solution. Where many have demanded Australia stop shipping live cattle to Indonesia, only one customer amongst others, the Australian companies take over the process and produce reports about improved conditions.
The cow doesn't have as much time to struggle, it is true. As with the pole method, the slicing of the neck commences once the cow is tied down. It takes repeated attempts in a saw-like motion, because the tools are simply small knives with limited cutting power. I could feel my stomach contract as one such slaughter unfolded in front of me. The cow's legs were waving, its body was panicking, obeying one final directive from its instincts as its throat was hacked away. RUN.
The gigantic beast, mooing, struggles to its feet once again. As it swings into view, I see half its neck is sawn through. Blood is gushing everywhere, pumping powerfully from the severed artery. Large chunks of red flesh hang down, and it bucks, trying to escape. It launches feebly towards the camera. The ropes that bind it are dragged on again, and one of the workers slices its a tendon in its back leg. It comes crashing down again, and its near-severed head hangs grotesquely over the edge of the platform. I am stunned. But not nearly as much as when I see this gruesomely detatched head - held only by a few muscles and sinew - suddenly rears up again. The thrashing and the movement, the life in its eyes, it lasts for minutes. Death comes only after what feels like an eternity. And I want to retch.
Another scene is filmed. I see the cattle being herded from the container to the slaughtering box, in another abattoir. They don't urge the cows on gently, they push them. They flay them. They tie ropes around them and drag them. There is a small rise, a platform connecting them to higher ground. It has no grip. One of the cows - hurrying away from the whipping - slips and falls. Several of its legs slip out over the edge and it just lays there, too tired or too stressed, says a cattle expert looking at the tape, to even try to move. The workers begin beating and flaying it with increased intensity, trying to get it to rise. It doesn't react. It lays there as they abuse it.
Finally they leave it there, and begin stirring the others again. Another beast is spooked into a mad rush. It gallops over the top of the first cow, trampling it. I see the large mournful head of this cow laying on the platform, just through the gap at the bottom of the walls. The head is resting on the ground, eyes wide. As if it cannot summon the energy to raise its head anymore.
All these scenes... they were interspersed with interviews. CEO's in suits. Breeders in flannel shirts and akubra hats... some of them agreeing and lamenting, many not. Only one of them had the decency to be self condemning. They were all responsible for deciding to keep Indonesia as a customer, knowing what went on in their abattoirs. They could have declined, all of them. But of course, they would have made far less money. Throughout the entire report, these members of the cattle industry manoeuvred around the questions, stating emphatically that conditions for the cows aren't so bad, that they have in fact improved. They admit fully that they are intimately involved, that they designed the box method, that they train the Indonesian workers and fund the existence of many of the slaughterhouses. They say treatment of cattle is better because of them. And they say so with complete assuredness, They do not seem to understand that their earnest faces are being aired alongside sickening footage of their own cows being brutally tortured by their own trained workers in their own slaughterhouses.
This particular Australian company ran six workshops with some of the abattoirs mentioned above over the last year. The footage was taken in February of 2011. The reporter asked the CEO of this particular company, if we've been supplying cattle to Indonesia for 18 years now, and the conditions of the slaughtering have been known for 10 of those years, and training, funding, design and procedure of the slaughter had been controlled by his company, then why.... she asked, "why should we believe that you are doing anything to fix the situation?"
He calmly answered every question the same way. Vehemently asserting again and again that they are helping to ease the process for the cattle. "We are actively engaged," he said, "we are over there, doing everything we can. Its a process, it will take time."
The footage resumes. The cow with the broken leg is now getting water poured into its nose in an attempt to make it stand up again. The workers start gouging at its eyes, up its nostrils, anything to try to make it stand. They want it to walk over to the slaughtering spot, even though it refuses to move with such a hideously injured limb.
"Is it acceptable that the animals suffer in the meantime, whilst you're trying to educate and persuade the Indonesian people?" the reporter asks. "Can you not simply refuse to supply them with live stock - kill the animals in controlled conditions over here?'
There is an excruciatingly long pause. I see the wheels in his brain ticking, his gaze trailing over the ceiling as he constructs an answer. His tie and suit, his glasses, his orderly hair... he sits there, and earnestly responds to the camera, "they aren't suffering anywhere near like they used to." His answer is ridiculously off topic, but the reporter doesn't say anything.
The last clip of film is of a row of cattle, which are fenced off by a small rail designed to line them up along the wall. The slaughter and the cutting up of the cows is taking place in front of them, on the same floor. One by one, the cows are processed. They are pulled down, their throats are slit, and they are skinned. The bodies are chopped and hacked into parts. Eventually the workers get down to the last cow, on its own. The camera focuses in on it, and it is quivering. Violent tremours run through its body. Cows are not terribly smart, but any animal has a basic understanding, says a scientist who specialises in cattle, of death. They understand when they witness it amongst their own. The cow in this clip, she explained with a heartbroken voice, had on some level comprehended the horrific display it had experienced, watching every cow in the line be abused, slaughtered, skinned and hacked to pieces. The blood was in the air, it covered the floors. The cries of the cows had been loud and distressed. And this last cow... on its own... was quivering in such tremendous fear.
I'm so angry and upset, because I know the industries will do nothing so long as Indonesia is a source of great income, which it is. I am also angry because, of all things, it is a religious belief that prevents Indonesians from using stun guns. It is considered humane to use these devices - I witnessed them jabbing cows a few times in an Australian abattoir. The zap was immediate, and the cow collapsed immediately, unconscious. It was so swift, so sudden.
It unfortunately does not accord with "Hallah". Their custom is to never slaughter meat when it is unconscious. It is a religious tradition that they have observed for thousands of years. The people will not buy the meat if it is not slaughtered according to their religious custom.
So the cows will go on dying in this hideous fashion, whilst these people feel better about their spirituality. It makes me so furious I want to cry.
I watched Four Corners today, Monday 30th May. Their story was about Indonesian abattoirs, which are funded and supplied by several Australian breeding companies. Australian beef is popular in Indonesia for its superior quality to local meat, and a great deal of income is generated both for them and for Australian breeding companies. A reporter spent months touring hundreds of facilities in Indonesia, where Australian cattle were slaughtered. These facilities she toured expressly because many industries and commissions have "inspected these practices and compiled reports, concluding that the treatment of the cattle was fairly good, and within humane standards."
I saw footage from her own hand-held camera, of what I would objectively classify as torture. I want to make it clear, that I'm the sort who rolls their eyes at PETA enthusiasts who shriek about animal murder. I'm not a vegetarian. But this was nothing short of barbaric - it made me physically ill. I wanted to leave the room, but I forced myself to watch. I felt guilt in the pit of my stomach, a knowledge that Australia - home of the pure and free - was pumping money into this industry with a very deliberate blind eye turned to the practices they insisted upon. I believe that you, a reader who hails from a first world nation which supplies cattle to Indonesia, should likewise force yourself to learn. Read on.
The floors were concrete, sloped, and covered in bloodied water to create an intentionally slippery surface. These gargantuan beasts, big lumbering bovine, would have ropes tied around their feet, which would then be yanked from underneath them. A frenzy would begin, the cows moaning softly, pulling their legs back under themselves, attempting to stand up. They would fall over again and again, slipping, being hauled constantly by the rope. Then a particular shot focused on the agonising death of one particular cow. They were trying to drag it over to the location where their necks would be slit, when the cow fell. There was a sickening crunch as its leg broke.
The workers are whipping it all the while, as they do all the beasts to encourage them to move. They beat their faces with hard implements. A rope is secured around the cows head, with it the cow is dragged towards a pole, still struggling to stand up all the while. The whites of his eyes are visible. He is on his belly now, trembling.
I'm forcibly reminded of a lighter image... Have you ever playfully upturned a dog or puppy during play? Flipped on their back, they wriggle their bodies in a violent and brisk motion - trying to gain enough momentum to rock back onto their feet again. The cows do something similar, launching their massive bodies off the floor in a ghastly rocking manner, fueled by panic. it doesn't help them stand up but in desperation, they try anyway, mooing and calling all the while. Their heads, with each thrash, crash violently down into the floor. This happens over and over again. Continually. Tens of times. Twenty. Thirty. Slap, crash, crunch.... heads slamming into the hard floor.
The Australian cattle industry experts and CEO's were questioned about "the headslaps" which occurred so many times in the killing process. What struck me is that they, and the interviewers, all understood the term and what it meant. The way the cows viciously slam their skulls into the floor trying to stand up was a known phenomena; they discussed it as casually as statistical information. It was a common bovine response.
The cow whose leg had broken stood still in front of the film crew, resting against a wall in exhaustion. His leg dangled horribly. The workers were attempting to drag him to the pole, where his neck could be cut. He didn't move. They began beating and whipping him harder, focusing on his legs. He slipped and fell again - directly onto the broken limb. It was all I could do not to yelp as I saw this massive weight crush the broken limb at an even more distorted angle. The cow clambered about in desperation to get away, but could not. He was continually whipped, and they lent on the rope around his neck, trying to pull this massive beast towards the preferred location for the slaughter.
This effort went on for some time. The journalist who taped it said that she could hear its plaintive mooing, and said it sounded very much to her like it was crying. She said... it struck her so that the cow did not know why it was being beaten, that it could not understand the attack being inflicted on it.
Another abattoir, another cow. The "box" is introduced. The box is a new and improved slaughtering device, designed commissioned and delivered to Indonesia by Australia. Australia's name is stamped across its side. This steel box, it encloses the cow, hanging from above with a few feet clearance from the floor. The feet are tied with rope and again, the cows legs are pulled out from underneath.
The cow falls, slides out of the gap onto a slope. The frenzy begins, as described before, but with less success. Finally the neck is positioned over the grate, and the workers begin hacking at the neck. The box is the cattle industry's answer to animal rights groups. It is a 'humane' solution. Where many have demanded Australia stop shipping live cattle to Indonesia, only one customer amongst others, the Australian companies take over the process and produce reports about improved conditions.
The cow doesn't have as much time to struggle, it is true. As with the pole method, the slicing of the neck commences once the cow is tied down. It takes repeated attempts in a saw-like motion, because the tools are simply small knives with limited cutting power. I could feel my stomach contract as one such slaughter unfolded in front of me. The cow's legs were waving, its body was panicking, obeying one final directive from its instincts as its throat was hacked away. RUN.
The gigantic beast, mooing, struggles to its feet once again. As it swings into view, I see half its neck is sawn through. Blood is gushing everywhere, pumping powerfully from the severed artery. Large chunks of red flesh hang down, and it bucks, trying to escape. It launches feebly towards the camera. The ropes that bind it are dragged on again, and one of the workers slices its a tendon in its back leg. It comes crashing down again, and its near-severed head hangs grotesquely over the edge of the platform. I am stunned. But not nearly as much as when I see this gruesomely detatched head - held only by a few muscles and sinew - suddenly rears up again. The thrashing and the movement, the life in its eyes, it lasts for minutes. Death comes only after what feels like an eternity. And I want to retch.
Another scene is filmed. I see the cattle being herded from the container to the slaughtering box, in another abattoir. They don't urge the cows on gently, they push them. They flay them. They tie ropes around them and drag them. There is a small rise, a platform connecting them to higher ground. It has no grip. One of the cows - hurrying away from the whipping - slips and falls. Several of its legs slip out over the edge and it just lays there, too tired or too stressed, says a cattle expert looking at the tape, to even try to move. The workers begin beating and flaying it with increased intensity, trying to get it to rise. It doesn't react. It lays there as they abuse it.
Finally they leave it there, and begin stirring the others again. Another beast is spooked into a mad rush. It gallops over the top of the first cow, trampling it. I see the large mournful head of this cow laying on the platform, just through the gap at the bottom of the walls. The head is resting on the ground, eyes wide. As if it cannot summon the energy to raise its head anymore.
All these scenes... they were interspersed with interviews. CEO's in suits. Breeders in flannel shirts and akubra hats... some of them agreeing and lamenting, many not. Only one of them had the decency to be self condemning. They were all responsible for deciding to keep Indonesia as a customer, knowing what went on in their abattoirs. They could have declined, all of them. But of course, they would have made far less money. Throughout the entire report, these members of the cattle industry manoeuvred around the questions, stating emphatically that conditions for the cows aren't so bad, that they have in fact improved. They admit fully that they are intimately involved, that they designed the box method, that they train the Indonesian workers and fund the existence of many of the slaughterhouses. They say treatment of cattle is better because of them. And they say so with complete assuredness, They do not seem to understand that their earnest faces are being aired alongside sickening footage of their own cows being brutally tortured by their own trained workers in their own slaughterhouses.
This particular Australian company ran six workshops with some of the abattoirs mentioned above over the last year. The footage was taken in February of 2011. The reporter asked the CEO of this particular company, if we've been supplying cattle to Indonesia for 18 years now, and the conditions of the slaughtering have been known for 10 of those years, and training, funding, design and procedure of the slaughter had been controlled by his company, then why.... she asked, "why should we believe that you are doing anything to fix the situation?"
He calmly answered every question the same way. Vehemently asserting again and again that they are helping to ease the process for the cattle. "We are actively engaged," he said, "we are over there, doing everything we can. Its a process, it will take time."
The footage resumes. The cow with the broken leg is now getting water poured into its nose in an attempt to make it stand up again. The workers start gouging at its eyes, up its nostrils, anything to try to make it stand. They want it to walk over to the slaughtering spot, even though it refuses to move with such a hideously injured limb.
"Is it acceptable that the animals suffer in the meantime, whilst you're trying to educate and persuade the Indonesian people?" the reporter asks. "Can you not simply refuse to supply them with live stock - kill the animals in controlled conditions over here?'
There is an excruciatingly long pause. I see the wheels in his brain ticking, his gaze trailing over the ceiling as he constructs an answer. His tie and suit, his glasses, his orderly hair... he sits there, and earnestly responds to the camera, "they aren't suffering anywhere near like they used to." His answer is ridiculously off topic, but the reporter doesn't say anything.
The last clip of film is of a row of cattle, which are fenced off by a small rail designed to line them up along the wall. The slaughter and the cutting up of the cows is taking place in front of them, on the same floor. One by one, the cows are processed. They are pulled down, their throats are slit, and they are skinned. The bodies are chopped and hacked into parts. Eventually the workers get down to the last cow, on its own. The camera focuses in on it, and it is quivering. Violent tremours run through its body. Cows are not terribly smart, but any animal has a basic understanding, says a scientist who specialises in cattle, of death. They understand when they witness it amongst their own. The cow in this clip, she explained with a heartbroken voice, had on some level comprehended the horrific display it had experienced, watching every cow in the line be abused, slaughtered, skinned and hacked to pieces. The blood was in the air, it covered the floors. The cries of the cows had been loud and distressed. And this last cow... on its own... was quivering in such tremendous fear.
I'm so angry and upset, because I know the industries will do nothing so long as Indonesia is a source of great income, which it is. I am also angry because, of all things, it is a religious belief that prevents Indonesians from using stun guns. It is considered humane to use these devices - I witnessed them jabbing cows a few times in an Australian abattoir. The zap was immediate, and the cow collapsed immediately, unconscious. It was so swift, so sudden.
It unfortunately does not accord with "Hallah". Their custom is to never slaughter meat when it is unconscious. It is a religious tradition that they have observed for thousands of years. The people will not buy the meat if it is not slaughtered according to their religious custom.
So the cows will go on dying in this hideous fashion, whilst these people feel better about their spirituality. It makes me so furious I want to cry.