The Australian gpvernment is not banning the export of cattle to Vietnam amid allegations of an anti-animal cruelty group that homebred cattle are being sledgehammered in Vietnamese abattoirs.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday that the allegation of Animals Australia is being investigated and appropriate action will be taken.
"But the last thing we'll do is close down this trade," Abbott said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Abbott said the government will not repeat the mistake of the previous administration in 2011, when then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard suspended live cattle trade to Indonesia because Australian cattle are slaughtered with brutal techniques there.
"It cost thousands of Australians their livelihoods, at least for a period. It badly damaged our relations with Indonesia, a country which is very important to us. So it was a crazy decision, probably the most short-sighted blunder in Australian foreign policy in recent memory," Abbott said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce told ABC TV on Wednesday that the government does not abide nor condone the use of sledgehammers in the slaughter of cattle.
He also ruled out suspending cattle trade with Vietnam, according to Agence France Presse.
Australia exported 178,000 animals to Vietnam in 2014. The market is said to be worth $79 million annually.
Under Australia's Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) set up in 2011, animals exported from Australia should be treated humanely.
Joyce said cattle exporters reported in March three Vietnamese abattoirs where Australian cattle are killed with sledgehammers and his department is tracing how the animals ended up in those slaughterhouses not accredited under ESCAS.
Animals Australia filed last week a complaint with the Department of Agriculture (DOA) after getting a hold of video footages showing Australian cattle being killed with sledgehammers in Vietnamese abattoirs.
The group recalled that a similar complaint was lodged by a citizen with the DOA in June 2013 to no avail, so it is requesting a meeting with the Australian Live Exporters' Council (ALEC) in case the said agency fails to take action.
ALEC Chief Executive Alison Penfold said the organization is aware of the practice in Vietnam which is banned by its members, according to a press statement. Penfold blamed the problem on the transfer of Australian cattle to non-approved slaughterhouses in northern Vietnam.
Cattle exporters are remedying the problem by requiring Vietnamese importers to install CCTV cameras in feedlot and abattoir for monitoring of acceptable stunning method before slaughter exporters stop supplying cattle to abattoirs found to have maltreated animals.
"We mean business by continuing to trade with those Vietnamese supply chains that are committed to good standards of welfare and we mean business by refusing to trade with those that don't," Penfold said in the press statement.
