Warning: These photographs are graphic and may upset some readers.
For years, north-west Queensland was stricken with drought.
Suffering from a severe lack of rain for more than five years, Queensland based farmers struggled to keep their cattle alive through tough and dry conditions.
But when the rain finally began to fall, the situation became even more dire.
In just 10 days, some rural parts of the Queensland region received more than three years’ worth of average rainfall.
Two people were killed in the floods, hundreds of homes have been either damaged or destroyed and the state’s cattle industry are expecting an extraordinary loss of up to 500,000 cattle.
Top Comments
It’s a shame there was no practical information provided about how we can help in this article. I found a charity called Drought Angels whose flood aid appeal donations go directly toward helping farming families.
My thoughts are for the animals. Not the economic loss experienced by those farmers who continue to actively participate in live export. (My criticism excludes those who do not).
Put yourself in the animals place- Given a choice of: dying with your kin in your own lands, by drowning or starvation OR drowning in shit on a live export ship, constant stress and the torture of a sea journey jammed into those ships then unimaginable horror of being frightened, separated, tendons slashed, legs roped, eyes stabbed and your throat slit in the stench and heat of a foreign place. What would you be your choice?
For those animals bred for live export this horrible death is not the worst option. Let’s not pretend it is. I give my unreserved sympathy for all of the animals who suffer because of this disaster and the farmers in the industry who actively do what they can to avoid live export and champion alternatives. For those farmers who actively engage and support live industry, I don’t care. Your “suffering” is an irrelevance.
You’ve made a great point. Live cattle export is horrific and it has to stop.