After the 2011 live export crisis, Australia brought in rules designed to keep animals in accredited abattoirs. But with breaches widespread, there is little evidence that the rules are being policed.
Worldwide, the livestock industry is a bigger source of greenhouse gases than transport.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
The recent Lancet Commission report rightly pointed out that climate change is a huge risk to global public health. But it shied away from one of the main issues: the world consumes far too much meat.
Money and welfare should be separated in all animal industries.
Rainer Hungershausen/Flickr
Now that Victoria and Queensland have reported on their inquiries into the greyhound racing industry, it is timely to consider the findings of the reports and their implications for the animal industries of Australia.
Modern cattle in Kenya.
Steven Goldstein, Washington University St. Louis
New research upends the previous theory that tsetse flies – and the disease they carry – were the main reason the spread of livestock domestication in Africa stalled out for a thousand years.
Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock in the Star Trek series, died on Feb. 27
Nimoy star image via www.shutterstock.com
Temple Grandin is perhaps the world’s foremost advocate on autism. But before she became famous, she was an awkward young girl who found solace in Mr. Spock’s logical world view in TV’s Star Trek.
The face of climate evil, or just a juicy steak?
Sheila/Flickr
For millions of livestock owners across Africa, a disease in the herd can mean hardship or even ruin. Access to effective veterinary treatment is therefore essential for many people’s livelihoods. Many…
Brazil’s cattle herd is the world’s second-biggest - and welfare standards are on the up.
Zeloneto/Wikimedia Commons
Monika Merkes, La Trobe University and Rob Buttrose, The University of Melbourne
While Brazil’s footballers have failed spectacularly to live up to expectations, there are other areas where the country is quietly exceeding them. Perhaps surprisingly, Brazil’s rapidly improving animal…
Up close and personal to the bovine TB epidemic.
David Cheskin/PA
Bovine tuberculosis is a major problem in the UK: in 2013 around 8m cattle were tested and 32,000 slaughtered at a cost of an estimated £100m, including compensation – a huge economic burden that makes…
After a tip-off from an Egyptian vet, Animals Australia sparked a government investigation into what an industry leader described as “horrific” slaughtering practices in Egypt last year. Tougher rules have now been promised.
Animals Australia
Australia looks set to resume exporting live sheep to Iran, after Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce this week flagged the end of a 40-year ban following Iran’s Islamic revolution. Flanked by the chief…
Catching badgers to vaccinate them requires effort.
Andrew Milligan/PA
Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest threat to the livestock industry in England and Wales. At present, bovine TB is still not under control in parts of these countries, and there is no single measure…
Raising livestock accounts for the largest single land-use on Earth. Cattle, sheep and goats, pigs and poultry occupy around 30% of the planet’s land area not covered in ice, generate 40% of the world’s…
Badgers in the UK are an important wildlife reservoir for bovine tuberculosis, a disease that leads to the slaughter of thousands of cattle each year at a significant cost to the tax payer. But the badger…
The chaotic failure of the government’s pilot badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire, aimed at curbing bovine TB, illustrates some of the problems that arise when policymakers ignore scientific studies…
The precise locations and date of the imminent badger cull are secret, but the aim is clear: to see if marksmen can shoot and kill badgers humanely and efficiently. If so, a wider cull will follow. For…
Britain’s best loved mammal, but no friend to cattle farmers.
Ben Birchall/PA
What do the pilot badger culls due to start this weekend in Gloucester and West Somerset hope to achieve? The official line is a 16% reduction of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle herds over the next…