It has been claimed that mobile abattoirs will spare the stress caused to animals when loaded on a truck and taken for processing.
Seems anyone stealing rangeland goats will be charged with poaching. Yes, poaching. Seems it is the correct term for rustling feral animals.
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Goats, once the bane of landholders, are now worth real money unlike camels, donkeys and wild pigs that continue to trash the landscape.
So it is not thieving, duffing or rustling, it is poaching.
Many poachers came to our shores in the early days of this nation's settlement. They had knocked off a pheasant, a deer, a fish or a rabbit from some estate and the punishment was transportation. It mattered not that the food often went to feed a starving family. Off to the colonies you went, which was better than the previous punishment of hanging.
Beware, as if you feel like knocking off a few ducks on a neighbouring property, a rabbit or two you could face charges of poaching.
Whist trespassing will always be a crime, those unwittingly crossing a boundary to shoot feral pigs should surely be cut some slack.
MOBILE MOVE
It has been claimed that mobile abattoirs will spare the stress caused to animals when loaded on a truck and taken for processing.
Sure, knocking an animal on-farm has been an accepted practice for generations.
Killer sheep have fed many a family and those working on large properties. And it all comes down to cost and a decent refrigerated facility.
It has been claimed domestic animals could be spared the ordeal of a stressful truck ride to the abattoir with new laws set to allow them to be slaughtered on their own farm.
Killing animals for human consumption and sale in Victoria was previously limited to static facilities but legislation is set to allow mobile abattoirs to operate as well.
The Andrews' Victorian government and industry supporters say mobile abattoirs can improve both animal welfare standards and meat quality, which is a load of rot.
How will meat quality be improved and where is the protection of meat inspection?
These facilities can reportedly process up to 15 head of cattle on-farm and the bodies are taken back to the operator's property, are hung and then broken for sale.
That is one heck of a lot of meat if the truck works at capacity for a five-day working week.
If the meat is returned to the animal's owner a damn big deep freeze will be needed.
If they should on-sell meat all traceability will be shot.
