UK bans export of live animals and Australia will do the same in 2028

In the United Kingdom, after a long campaign led by the Conservatives, Parliament has just banned all exports of live farmed animals. Australia, which exports a huge number of animals, particularly sheep, announces that it will ban it in three years.

In the United Kingdom, a law banning the export of live animals was a government promise since 2017. The text just needs to receive royal assent, which is a formality, before coming into force. Australia is a heavyweight when it comes to breeding. However, the Minister of Agriculture has also just announced a ban planned for 2028.

Australia, the world’s largest exporter of sheep

Australia exports a huge number of live animals, since it is the world’s leading exporter of sheep, particularly to Muslim countries, to neighboring Indonesia but also to the Middle East. Kuwait alone imports half of the approximately 600,000 live sheep sold by Australia each year. This market reaches its peak every year at the end of the month of Ramadan, on the occasion of Eid, where tradition dictates that for the occasion, a sheep is sacrificed.

Activity has nevertheless been disrupted in recent months by the troubles caused by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. There was notably the case of an Israeli ship with 15,000 live sheep on board. After 15 days of crossing, he had to turn around, then remained off the coast of Australia for another week. He was waiting for the authorities to approve his relief plan, namely a 33-day journey to circumnavigate the entire African continent. This plan was ultimately refused by the Australians, who forced the ship’s owners to disembark the sheep. The authorities believed that the shipowner was not able to assure them of the well-being of the animals and, moreover, it is estimated that several hundred of them died in unbearable heat.

If these exports of live animals are a very important business for Australia, the government has announced that it intends to ban them from 2028. The news was announced less than a week ago by the minister of Agriculture, promising to allocate around 60 million euros to help breeders adapt to this new reality. The decision was welcomed by animal rights associations, who have been calling for this ban for years. On the other hand, it was very poorly taken by breeders. In Western Australia alone, the local government estimates that 400 jobs could disappear. As for the conservative opposition, it has already undertaken, if they return to power next year after the next federal elections, to reverse this ban.

In the United Kingdom, a long-term fight

In Britain, the end of the export of live animals includes pigs, horses, cows, sheep and goats. The UK exports thousands of animals a year, up to a million in the 1990s, either for fattening or slaughter. The conservatives in power have been promising this law since 2017, which is very popular in the country. For almost half a century, associations such as the RSPCA, the equivalent of the SPA in France, have denounced the conditions of transport, in extremely restricted, poorly ventilated spaces, with young people separated from their mothers. They also denounce the length of the journeys – sometimes several days. Defenders of animal welfare are therefore delighted with this long-awaited law, although they would have liked it to go further, by banning, for example, the breeding of chickens in cages, or the end of imports of furs and foie gras.

As is often the case on subjects linked to agriculture, the conservatives highlight that this law was able to see the light of day thanks to Brexit. Until its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom was obliged to maintain its exports, at least to the other countries of the bloc. Seven years later, the benefits of Brexit remain rare, and the elections which must be held by the end of the year promise to be complicated for the government.

However, it is not certain that this will be a victory on all counts. Breeders fear that stopping exports will place them even more at the mercy of foreign competition. And then, the law will only apply in Great Britain, not in Northern Ireland, still subject to European customs rules.