VietNamNet Bridge – Animals Australia should have contacted competent agencies in Vietnam to verify the accuracy of a video featuring workers smashing cows to death with sledge-hammers at a slaughterhouse alleged to be in Vietnam and local firms to learn how cows are slaughtered before posting it online.

Australian cows are seen at a local farm in this file photo. Animals Australia should have contacted competent agencies in Vietnam to verify the accuracy of a video featuring workers smashing cows to death with sledge-hammers at a slaughterhouse alleged to be in Vietnam – Photo: Uyen Vien

The director of a major domestic enterprise which imports Australian cows made the request after the cruel practice made headlines in Australian and British newspapers based on the video. Animals Australia called for Aussie cow exporters to suspend cattle exports to Vietnam.

The director said he watched Animals Australia’s footage on www.abc.net.au and found it misleading viewers because Vietnamese importers of Australian cows apply a slaughtering method different from that of a private slaughterhouse described in the video.

He said Animals Australia should have asked local firms to learn about how they slaughter cows imported from Australia. Animals Australia’s call for a halt to export of Australian cows to Vietnam would cause unnecessary losses for both sides.

“It is unfair to say Vietnam uses sledge-hammers to slaughter cows and call for Australian cow exporters to suspend shipments to Vietnam just because of the video only,” said the director, who declined to be named.

The Animal Husbandry Association of Vietnam said that in the past two years a number of local companies have imported calves from Australia for raising before selling the cattle to the domestic market. Therefore, cow supply will be stable and local importers will find suppliers from other markets if Australia stops selling cows to Vietnam as requested by Animals Australia.

Apart from Australia, Vietnam imports cattle from the U.S. and Canada.

This was not the first time Animals Australia launched a video = of cattle being sledge-hammered to death which was reportedly filmed in Vietnam. In May last year, the organization released a similar video and called on Australian exporters to stop selling cows to Vietnam.

Australia-based Live Corp reported that 230,433 or 19.5% of over 1,185,180 cows Australia exported last year went to Vietnam, only behind Indonesia with 686,159 cows.

Vietnam imported 71,000 Australian cows in the first quarter of this year at A$2.9-3.5 per kilogram. Live Corp also predicted that Vietnam’s cow imports from Australia this year would be equivalent to last year and would remain at the second place.

SGT