IN response to Anne Leeson, Willetton, attacking our live trade (Farm Weekly, Thursday, November 5, 2020).
As farmers we do love our sheep, we see baby lambs at foot with mum and sometimes we have to intervene to assist mum to deliver her baby.
That is an amazing experience, especially when mum looks back at us and we see the expression on her face thanking us as we stand back and let her take over with a wobbly wet baby at her side.
We also know that she has a job on her hands rearing her baby for the next few months.
The reality is, when we need meat, we kill a sheep and that is one source of protein we consume and the sheep on the voyage to another part of the world are making it there safer now because the Middle East also needs a diet of meat and Australia can meet that demand.
The voyage is much safer now thanks to the Federal Department of Agriculture that allowed sheep producers to send in submissions where we demanded change because we were so concerned about the number of deaths occurring on the ships.
Included in the submissions was the lower stocking rates on board, Australian vets, more observers to check over the stock for any changes of ill health and more reporting and note-taking of every voyage.
As for the surviving sheep that reach the destination, as producers we know the final outcome, the reality, they kill a sheep for meat just like us, they feed their families or they sell the meat as "their" commodity to make a living.
There are no secrets, there are no videos, there is nothing to tell.
Accept the stock person's confirmation that the sheep are receiving the highest of welfare standards.
Honestly, the way some people make up dramatised stories about our industry and producers is beyond me.
I wonder which group of radical animal activists would have paid for an ill-informed, letter to the Farm Weekly?
Fiona Taylor, Northampton
