No to live sheep exports but it's okay to hurt the crabs?

Aaah what a strange world we live in...full of hypocrisy.

We don't like the idea of sending lambs on a comfortable ship to Saudi Arabia to be killed when they would be killed here anyway but we don't mind boiling the odd crab or lobster or two for our supper.

Think there's a difference? You might be wrong. Today's UK Daily Mail reports that latest research shows that crabs feel pain when they are boiled - surprise surprise - and would remember that pain if they escaped the pot.

The finding could have important implications for the food industry, where many chefs boil crabs, lobsters and prawns alive in the belief that they are impervious to pain.

Wonder if the Green Party think of that when they order up a crustacean delicacy alongside their barley smoothies?

Live sheep exports could create Kiwi consumer backlash

The New Zealand Herald asked readers what they thought about the prospect of resuming live sheep exports with some worrying responses.

The overwhelming sentiment was that the trade was deplorable with many saying they would protest by not buying New Zealand lamb.

As said in previous posts, even if the reality is far different from what Sue Kedgely is promising it will be a difficult business to push in the current consumer market place where top chefs such as Jamie Oliver preach daily on welfare for animals.

It seems no matter what stringent conditions MAF comes up with there will be a large majority of people bent on destroying the trade.

Here's a sample of some of the comments:

"I will stop buying lamb in protest if this takes off!"

"It's inexcusably and unnecessarily cruel.It also destroys jobs and businesses for New Zealanders.A return to live sheep exports signals a triumph of greed over not only the value of humane treatment of animals but also the expectation that our first priority is to maintaining the maximum benefit of our efforts going to our own people.It creates one more field in which we are seen to have lesser expertise than the rest of the world and worse, lesser morality and standards of decency.This suggestion bears a remarkable similarity to Fonterra and the melamine scandal which also impacted both human beings and animals: a morality based only on convenience and profit to a select few at a cost of suffering to the majority - human or animal.It seems the tide in the world has turned. No longer is humanity progressing toward higher principles (however despised 'colonialism' is in modern times) but returning to the lowest common denominator to be found in the characteristics of our trading partners."

"Yes to live sheep exports provided they are flown there in economy class with flight attendant service."

Hysteria overshadowing reality of live sheep exports

You have to hand it to Sue Kedgley. She knows how to push the Green Party agenda forward by using emotion over fact to benefit the cause.

In this case it is the Government's intention to end a six year moratorium on live sheep exports and Kedgley has ramped up the national sentiment to such a hysterical level it is almost impossible to find any real facts among the animal welfare banter.

Kedgley is a smart lady. By talking about 'ritual sacrifice' and reminding us of the Australian disaster when 5000 sheep died in 2004 she has guaranteed an outrage that is disproportionate to the reality - but why let facts get in the way of reality?

The truth is (for anyone not blathering on talkback radio today), that there is strict regulations governing the live export trade and it is in the best interests of the producers to deliver healthy sheep. MAF will have to be absolutely certain that these sheep will not be mistreated on the journey.

But let's be honest about this - Kedgley is absolutely right to say that many of these sheep will be used in Muslim rituals when they reach Saudi Arabia - and while that might not be comfortable in our culture, it it their prerogative to do what they will.

And while we're being honest let's just say that it's slightly hypocritical to suggest a live sheep export is abhorrent to our sensitivities when we cook live crayfish among other things, without much of a thought to how it got on our plate...and then of course there are the vegetables that scream in the pot...aren't they alive!!!

Business exports are valuable right now and while we can't put at risk our reputation, if this live trade can work, we owe it to our farming community and to our economy to give it a go.

This is not Australia and it's not 2004. In terms of animal welfare standards we have come a long way since then and Sue Kedgley knows this, so bravo Sue, you've put the Green Party in the headlines again, you clever clever gal.