Diana, over recent weeks we have explored every legal possibility to help the animals on the Bahijah, only to have to accept that their fate rested with the live export regulator in Australia – the Federal Department of Agriculture.

So it’s with a heavy heart that I tell you that, inconceivably, the regulator is allowing the animals to be re-loaded so the ship can once again embark for Israel.

As you know, the decision to grant the exporter an export permit rather than keep the animals in Australia condemns them to another month at sea – and is nothing less than sanctioned animal cruelty. 

This map shows the extended route the sheep and cattle will be forced to travel over the next 30+ days – just so they can be killed for their meat in Israel.

This has been like watching a horror movie, Diana. First, the decision to send a shipment of live animals into a conflict zone, then they head for South Africa, and then to not offload them immediately when they returned to Australia – allowing them instead to languish for days in the middle of a Western Australian heatwave. 

It has been a true ‘tragedy of errors’ – human errors – and yet, once again, it is the animals who will suffer the consequences.

Our commitment to you Diana, has always been that we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to protecting animals. And I promise you, we haven’t.

Over recent weeks we’ve been part of a monumental collaborative effort, spanning Australia, South Africa and Israel.

We have been communicating in the strongest of terms with the live export regulator – highlighting to them their strong grounds to reject the export permit application.

Yet, they have chosen to approve it – adhering to processes that were not written with the interests of animals at heart.

As you know, this trade has been littered with animal welfare disasters. On each occasion we have honoured these animals by being their voice with our politicians, and that is what we must do again. 

That re-loading and shipping these animals once again to Israel was the live export industry’s preferred option, when more humane alternatives exist, presents further evidence as to why this ruthless trade must end.

Their ‘animal welfare’ claims have been brutally and completely exposed as PR spin.

Right now, we are calling on our Australian supporters to ensure every politician here understands the weight of community anguish at this injustice.

We also wanted to thank you Diana, for supporting our efforts from overseas to ensure that the story of the animals on the Bahijah is one of the very final pages of the tragic story that is live animal export.

For the animals,

Lyn White AM Director of Strategy