This is the audio of a talk given by Nick Pendergrast from ARA at the Cruelty Free Festival, held in Perth, Western Australia in November 2011: http://crueltyfreefestivalwa.org.au/ This talk discusses the debate over live export and related concepts such as humane slaughter and animal rights. You can view the powerpoint that accompanies this talk and follow along to see key points, graphics and sources for this talk. To view any of the links given in the powerpoint, hover over the link, right click, and click on 'open hyperlink'. You can watch the Corridor of Death clip referred to in the talk here: http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch?v=aHTNq33cXBQ

1. LIVE ANIMAL EXPORT, HUMANE
SLAUGHTER AND ANIMAL RIGHTS
Nick Pendergrast

2. FOUR CORNERS
 Luke Bowen (NT Cattleman‟s Association):
„We in Australia expect that animals should
be slaughtered quickly and speed and
efficiency is what it's about.‟
 Lyn White (Animals Australia): „We should
be killing the animals here under Australian
conditions, under our control, and then they
should only be shipped as meat products,
not live animals.‟
You can view the Four Corners transcript here.

3. OTHER MEDIA COVERAGE
Craig Terry McGimpsey (butcher):
 „Customers are questioning how his meat is
killed and whether it is different to Indonesia.‟
 Increased sales of organic/ethical meat.
 „They're starting to ask now how our animals
are processed, whether it be a Muslim
product.‟
 „…Our own animals, … , they're treated like a
human being's treated.‟after export horror revealed‟
Source: „Butcher backlash

4. IS AUSTRALIAN SLAUGHTER MUCH BETTER?
 No footage.
 Dave Hughes:
 „horrible.‟
 Stunning = humane slaughter?
 Merely electrocuted before they had their throats slit.
 My interview:
 Overcrowding.
 Whipped and beaten – including with
chains and crowbars.
 Throats slit while still fully conscious and
kicking and twitching.
You can read my interview with an Australian slaughterhouse worker here.

5. ANIMAL WELFARE
 „The problem from the animal rights perspective is that we kill
and use other animals, whereas the animal welfare perspective is
concerned with how we treat them and how we kill them‟ (Gary
Francione, p. 24).
 “Default” position or “status quo position.”
 Humane slaughter.
 Reduce suffering – five freedoms:
 free from thirst and hunger;
 adequate shelter;
 free from pain, injury and disease;
 permitted to express normal behaviours – sufficient space;
 free from fear or distress.
 Balancing of interests.
Bourke, pages 132-133.

6. ANIMAL WELFARE
Does it adequately protect
animals interests?
Interest in not being exploited.
Interest in not suffering.
Interest in continued life.

7. ACCEPTS ANIMALS AS PROPERTY
Under the law, there are
two categories, persons
and property, and
animals are legally
classified as property.
(White 2009, p. 97)

8. ACCEPTS INSTRUMENTALISM
 The view of animals as means to humans
ends.
 Only possible due to the property status of
animals: To be property means precisely to
be means to an end exclusively.
 Instrumentalism = exploitation, which is
defined as „use or utilization, especially for
profit‟ and „selfish utilization.‟
Francione, pages 10, 25.

9. BALANCING OF INTERESTS??
 Balancing interests of property owners and
property?? (Gary Francione).
 Only (minor) gains for animals when in the
economic interest of business eg controlled
atmosphere killing.
 Despite animal welfare regulations, animals are
largely unprotected from harm, so long as an
overriding human interest can be identified.
 Instrumentalism and the property status of animals
means trivial human benefits are placed above
fundamental animal interests eg suffering, life itself.
(White 2009, p. 97)

10. EGG AND DAIRY INDUSTRIES
 Males are an unwanted by-product.
 Killed shortly after birth.
 Females are killed once productivity
declines.
Sources: RSPCA on dairy, RSPCA on eggs and Peter Singer & Jim Mason, 2006, The Ethics
of What We Eat; pages 255-256. The story of “bobby calves” was also covered on the 7pm
project.

11. HUMANE SLAUGHTER??
 RSPCA: Dictionary meanings of humane include: „kind,
benevolent behaviour‟ and „compassion for the
suffering or distressed‟ when applied to people and
„inflicts less pain than others‟ when applied to an
instrument.
 The animal welfare perspective gives animal lives no
value at all.
 Punch worse than being killed?
 Interest in continued life.
 Jonathan Balcombe – listen to the whole interview
here.
 Four Corners.
 Jamie Oliver: male chicks.
 of Death – watch here.
Video: Corridor Bourke, pages 132-

12. ANIMAL WELFARE: INADEQUATE TO PROTECT
ANIMAL INTERESTS
 Interest in not being exploited.
 Interest in not suffering.
 Interest in continued life.

13. THE NEED FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS TO PROTECT
ANIMAL INTERESTS
Watch the full Chaser clip
here.

14. ANIMAL RIGHT NOT RIGHTS
 Giving animals the same rights as humans?
 Many human rights that have no application
to non-humans.
 Just one right:
 Theright not to be treated as the property of
humans.
 Protects animal interests – exploitation,
suffering, continued life.
Francione 2005, ‘One Right for All.’

15. MOVING AWAY FROM ANIMALS AS PROPERTY?
 The best interests of the pet have been
considered in family law disputes.
 In Spain the parliament wants to grant legal
personhood to primates.
ABC Radio National, 2009 ‘Animal Rights.’

16. DOLPHINS AS ‘NONHUMAN PERSONS’?
• Dolphins declared the world‟s second most
intelligent creatures after humans.
• Scientists suggest they are so bright that
they should be treated as “non-human
persons” who qualify for moral standing as
individuals.
• „Morally unacceptable to keep such
intelligent animals in amusement parks or to
kill them for food.‟
Jonathan Leake 2010, ‘Scientists Say Dolphins should be classified as “Non-human Persons” ’

17. ANIMAL RIGHTS
 Oppose the property status of all sentient beings.
 Shouldn‟t just be for “smarter” animals (this isn‟t the
case for humans).
 Shouldn‟t just be for animals we are more familiar with.
 Cannot justify using and killing sentient animals as
things/property, regardless of the treatment.
 Not larger cages, but empty cages (Regan 2004, p.
xiv).
 Animal rights is “radical”? Radical comes from Latin
words that mean “of roots”/”root”.
 Utopian? „At the present time, politically unrealistic‟ –
laws for animals have been passed on welfare
considerations, not rights (Garner 2008, p. 7).

18. VEGANISM – ANIMAL RIGHTS
 Veganism = „diet choice‟??
 Covers live export concerns eg transport, slaughter,
abuse.
 Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle whose adherents
seek to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or
any other purpose.
 Veganism „is a moral and political commitment to abolition
[of animal exploitation] on the individual level‟ (Francione
2007).
 Does not contribute to the demand for animal
products/the use of animals as property.
 Social movement demonstrating that the property status
is unnecessary.

19. VEGANPERTH.ORG.AU

20. FURTHER QUESTIONS/INFO
 Veganperth.org.au
 ARA:
 Website.
 Facebook.
 Twitter.
 nick@ara.org.au
 To view some of the articles Nick has
published on animal rights and other issues,
see here.