Great News: New Zealand Bans Live-Animal Export!
Update (30 September 2022):
The Animal Welfare Amendment Bill to ban live export has passed its third and final reading in Parliament in New Zealand!
The live export of cows, deer, goats, and sheep from New Zealand by sea will stop on 30 April 2023.
Now, all eyes are on the UK to follow suit. Join us in asking the environment secretary to end this trade in England and Wales at long last:
Urge the UK Government to Act!
Jo-Anne McArthur / Eyes On Animals15 April 2021:
We have some great news: New Zealand will finally end its live-export trade.
The country – which currently sends around 3 million live farmed animals every year on horrific voyages around the world to be used as “breeding stock” – will phase out the practice over the next two years. It’s a massive win for animals!
PETA Australia has written to the New Zealand government several times urging it to ban live export – most recently just last month, following a blockage in the Suez Canal that trapped at least 20 ships carrying cows and sheep, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals at risk.
Tragedy After Tragedy
PETA has previously revealed the ghastly conditions in which animals spend weeks travelling at sea, enduring seasickness, crowding, and exposure to all weather conditions.
Animals like cows, pigs, and sheep – including babies and pregnant females – are transported hundreds or even thousands of miles to be killed or raised for slaughter. The conditions are filthy and dangerous. They’re forced to endure the journey in all weather extremes, standing in their own waste, causing distress, injuries, and disease.
Video footage from a capsized ship in Romania with 14,000 sheep onboard. This is the reality of live export. Don’t wanna support this? Then stop eating meat. pic.twitter.com/1bECx8HOgC
— Ari Solomon (@VeganAri) November 25, 2019
Animals Exported as ‘Breeding Stock’ Still Suffer and Die
New Zealand opted to end live-animal exports for slaughter in 2008. However, just because the country’s animals haven’t been sent on overseas journeys straight to slaughter since, that doesn’t mean they’re any less susceptible to illness and death on-board vessels, and if they survive, it certainly doesn’t mean they’ll live happy lives.
In 2020, New Zealand exported almost 3 million live farmed animals, including 110,000 cows who will spend their short lives being forcibly impregnated on intensive dairy farms in China.
Day-old chicks make up the vast majority of exported animals. They’re torn away from their mothers and crammed into boxes by the thousands for transport overseas.
The New Zealand government has made a historic and compassionate move. With this decision, the Ardern administration said “no more” to sending millions of animals – and many humans – on horrible journeys fraught with injury, dehydration, starvation, illness, and death.
Will the UK Be Next?
The UK government has revealed plans to ban the export of live animals, too, as it moves to strengthen animal protection laws following Brexit. We recently completed the government’s consultation on the issue, calling for a complete and permanent end to this cruel industry. Please send environment secretary George Eustice a message to remind him that animals can’t wait any longer:
Help End Live Export in the UK
Jo-Anne McArthur / Eyes On AnimalsAnd don’t forget cows and other animals from Ireland. Contact Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to let him know that live export is synonymous with cruelty to animals and must be stopped:
Will the fact that their closest neighbor is making this compassionate move spur Australia to end its live-export industry, too? Tell the Australian High Commissioner to put a stop to this disgusting, dangerous trade at last:
