Billions of farm animals are forced into this agonizing system every day, traveling for days straight with with no food, no water, and no rest. Millions of the animals suffer and die in the process¹.

5 million animals are in transit and exposed to poor conditions and inhumane slaughter upon arrival every single day, and 2 billion farm animals are loaded onto trucks and ships on journeys spanning weeks annually².

The lack of oversight of the global live animal trade has meant that the drowning of thousands of sheep and trucks of cattle being left to suffer in extremely hot vehicles in ports are a common reality³.

Live export animal suffering has become a global issue.

Romania sends 2 million sheep a year to destinations all over the world. In 2019, a cargo ship from Romania carrying live animals capsized, killing more than 14,000 sheep⁴. In 2019 and 2020, almost 2,000 sheep crowded on to trucks endured journeys of up to 2,000 miles from the UK to Bulgaria and Hungary despite UK government pledges to ban long trips for slaughter and fattening⁵.

The shipping industry is largely not set up to facilitate humane transport of live animals. Ships are more likely to capsize if they’re older, converted, carry destabilizing loads of animals, and registered in flag states with weaker safety records³.

According to Lloyd’s List, which sees an urgent need for stricter regulation, there have been seven total losses of livestock carriers in the past decade, leading to the deaths of 50,000 animals and 170 seafarers⁶.

One of the worst casualties in recent history occurred on August 14, 2020, when a container ship built in 2001, the the Gulf Livestock 1, left New Zealand for China with 5,867 live cattle aboard. It sank in the East China Sea when a typhoon struck two weeks later. All of the animals and all but two of the 43 crew perished⁷.

This incident prompted New Zealand to enact a temporary suspension on exports of livestock that year, and then a permanent ban on the export of livestock by sea in 2021⁸.

Australia is the world's largest live exporter of animals for slaughter, facilitating shipments of live animals that often face mortality rates of 2% or higher⁹. Australian ports ship a range of animals including alpacas, buffalo, camels, cattle, deer, sheep and goats to over 60 countries around the world, most slaughtered for human consumption¹⁰.

Help us stop these unnecessary deaths by starting with the biggest source. Sign the petition and ask the government of Australia to ban live sheep and cattle exports!

More on this issue:

1. Nimisha Agarwal, Sentient Media (15 January 2021), "Live Animal Export: How Many Animals Die During Transport?"
2. Hilary Osborne and Bibi van der Zee, The Guardian (Mon 20 Jan 2020), "Live export: animals at risk in giant global industry."
3. Greg Miller, American Shipper (21 June 2022), "Livestock shipping strikes again: Death and cruelty on the high seas."
4. Stephen McGrath, The Guardian (27 November 2020), "Romania accused of 'silence' over ship that capsized killing 14,000 sheep."
5. Ben Webster, The Times (23 April 2020), "Sheep endure 2,000‑mile journeys for slaughter in Bulgaria and Hungary."
6. Lloyd's List (17 Jun 2022), "Animal harm: What to do about livestock carriers."
7. Junko Fujita, Praveen Menon, Reuters (2 September 2020), "More than 40 crew missing after cattle ship capsizes in storm off Japan."
8. The Daily Blog, (16 April 2021), "World Leading Live Export Ban Means Thousands Of Animals Will No Longer Suffer Overseas – SAFE NZ."
9. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australian Government (3 November 2022), "Investigations into notifiable mortality incidents."
10. Voiceless The Animal Protection Institute, "Live Export."