Australian live export industry

[1] Australia exports live cattle, sheep, goats, dairy cows, buffalo, and alpacas.

[3] Since 1985 at least ten government and parliamentary reviews have investigated live exports and its associated animal welfare issues.

[8] Australia exports live animals to many countries, including Indonesia, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China.

Stocking densities allocate 0.38 metres squared per sheep which means they cannot lay down or easily access food and water.

[8] In March 2011, Animals Australia conducted an investigation of the treatment of exported Australian cattle in Indonesia.

[17] The sudden decision taking immediate effect by then Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig in May 2011[18] to ban live animal exports in response to the negative media coverage resulted in significant disruption to the livestock supply chain across northern Australia.

"[20] In September 2012, 20,000 sheep were killed when a shipload of animals, rejected by Bahrain due to disease claims were offloaded into Pakistan.

Because cameras were not allowed on board, this was taken as true — until a Pakistani crew-member turned whistleblower documented the daily horrors onboard export ships, of sheep dehydrating, being crushed and even cooking alive during voyages to the Middle Eastern summer.

The evidence of routine, extreme animal cruelty was so horrific that Federal Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, called "bullshit" and described how the footage left him "shocked and gutted".

[24] One reform was the establishment of an Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports to oversee regulation from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.