ANIMALS ON THE MOVE
‘But people
like Billy Kerr,
brought up by
black and white
people strongly
connected to
country, belong
to the land,
and if they are
forced into other
occupations
they rarely come
back, meaning
a rich store of
knowledge is
lost to coming
generations.’
If people in WA want to eat home grown meat – not have it shipped to them, live or frozen, from
another country or state – they need to understand that numerically they are a small part of the
equation. Primary producers cannot earn a living by only supplying local markets. Live or dead
export is the go in WA.
Getting livestock from rural regions in WA to city markets is nearly always a long trek by road
because abattoirs are few and far between. A truck packed with animals in never a pretty sight – but
it only got uglier when a lot of the stockmen who drive these trucks lost their jobs overnight in 2011
and walked away from the industry to take up other work, leaving stock handling to people who
have no experience working with animals. Again, the loss is felt by both animals and humans.
Bill has known plenty of men who have given up farming stock. The responsibility of looking after
animals and watching them suffer from the combined efforts of bad seasons, bad government policy,
plunging credit ratings and a lack of support from all sides has made men and women across rural
Australia walk away from the land.
WORKING OFF THE FARM
Bill is not the first farmer to have lost a living and been forced to put shoulder to another plough to
get back on his feet again. Working away from the farm to pay for the farm is a part of rural life these
days.
But people like Billy Kerr, brought up by black and white people strongly connected to country,
belong to the land, and if they are forced into other occupations they rarely come back, meaning a
rich store of knowledge is lost to coming generations.
The livestock industry needs to be talked about and supported, systems need to be monitored
at every point, and all viewpoints need to be listened to so that the decisions made protect, not
decimate, the welfare of the animals and the lives of the people who grow the food we eat.
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