'Sadistic' footage may involve Australian cattle

Updated

The Department of Agriculture is investigating whether shocking video of cattle being abused at Israel's largest abattoir involves Australian livestock.

An undercover reporter, who posed as a meat worker at the Bakar Tnuva slaughterhouse to capture the footage, says the cattle involved were shipped from Australia.

The video has sparked a criminal investigation in Israel. Overnight, protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv calling for management at the abattoir to be jailed and for Australia to halt live exports.

The footage shows abattoir workers repeatedly targeting the eyes, genitals and anus of cattle with an electric stun gun.

"You have the pipe, the stick, the shocker and you put them in its ass," one worker says.

"These were the exact instructions of the managers.

"In my first day there, the security manager told me you have a probe, you have a stick, you use them to prompt the animals.

"If a calf doesn't move, shove the electric probe in his ass and he will move."

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The footage also shows management watching on as an injured cow is dragged by a front leg behind a forklift.

The video was captured on a hidden camera by journalist and animal rights activist Ronen Bar, who worked there under cover for 19 days.

Mr Bar says most of the animals he filmed are Australian.

"Some of the cattle I filmed their ear tags and it says Australia," he told 7.30.

"Also the workers told me that the calves are Australian and the managers [say] most of the calves that are slaughtered there are Australian."

Department of Agriculture deputy secretary Phillip Glide says the animals may well be from Australia.

"It's a reasonable expectation. We're conducting an investigation and we're doing that in conjunction with the Israeli authorities who are conducting their own investigations," he said.

Mr Glide says three Australian companies have previously exported to Bakar Tnuva.

Elders International says the cattle in the footage are not theirs, and Livestock Shipping Services say its last shipment arrived in March.

Adom-Adom owns the abattoir and is a major beef supplier in Israel.

It says it receives cattle from a number of countries and does not know if the animals in the footage came from Australia.

'Breach of standards'

The vision also shows the cattle being slaughtered. There are no reflex tests to ensure the animals are unconcious and cattle are moved as they bleed to death.

That treatment was supposed to have ended following the outcry over a Four Corners report last year.

After that program aired, live exports to Indonesia were suspended and a new export supply chain assurance scheme introduced to ensure better animal welfare outcomes.

RSPCA chief scientist Dr Bidda Jones has analysed the footage and written to the Department of Agriculture saying the vision proves the abattoir fails to meet basic guidelines.

"What I've observed in this abattoir breaches the standards set by the exporters supply chain assurance scheme multiple times," she said.

"So in terms of the way which animals moved around in pens prior to slaughter, the use of the prodder, the number of times prodders were used, the way in which it was used, the dragging of animals to move animals through the pens, picking up animals and throwing them - all those things are clear breaches of the standards and the international animal welfare guidelines."

I just couldn't believe - having looked a the footage and understanding how many things are wrong - how could an auditor walk thought the door of that place and think that was acceptable? Dr Bidda Jones

The RSPCA also says the new auditing scheme to monitor animal welfare standards is not working in practice.

7.30 has discovered the abattoir was audited on behalf of Elders International two months before the September sting operation and was found to be squeaky clean.

The audit process was introduced after last year's outcry.

The only problem noted in the July audit was a rusty gate that caused excessive noise.

"I just couldn't believe - having looked at the footage and understanding how many things are wrong - how could an auditor walk thought the door of that place and think that was acceptable?" Dr Jones said.

Elders International declined to answer questions about its audit.

The company says it will require another independent audit before continuing to ship to Bakar Tnuva, as does Livestock Shipping Services.

'Just not acceptable'

Mr Glide says the Department of Agriculture's investigation will look at how the facility passed the initial audit.

"We're appalled by what we saw on that video and what was brought to light by the Israeli TV crew," he said.

"That's just not acceptable but it doesn't mean the system's not working."

He insists the changes to live export laws are robust and that this was just an initial audit that would have been followed by others.

"People can have faith and people have to understand that you can't get it 100 per cent right all the time," he said.

We would like to emphasise unequivocally that we condemn the behaviour that was presented in the video - rude, sadistic behaviour. Spokeswoman for abattoir owner Adom Adom

"Any system can have failures and our job is to try and find out if there are any problems in the system."

Jock Laurie from the National Farmers Federation says the footage is "difficult to watch", but still believes the new system is working.

He says another audit will allow practices like those at the Bakar Tnuva abattoir to be corrected.

"I think watching that footage, it just shows how important it is that the Australian industry continues in those markets and continues working on those markets to increase animal welfare standards," he said.

"I think once we go out of the system, there's not too many other people who are working there to continually improve."

A spokeswoman for the abattoir's owners said consultants from Meat and Livestock Australia were arriving to retrain its staff.

"We would like to emphasise unequivocally that we condemn the behaviour that was presented in the video - rude, sadistic behaviour," the spokeswoman said.

Topics: beef-cattle, livestock, rural, animal-welfare, federal-government, israel, australia

First posted