'Final Moments' Video from Animals Australia

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Dear friends

Only eight months ago I stood in Indonesian slaughterhouses filming the harrowing abuse dealt out nightly to Australian cattle. The unforgettable stories of individual animals I captured on camera united a nation against animal cruelty. Last night ABC's Four Corners was awarded the Gold Walkley for bringing these stories to light.

Sadly, having witnessed animals slaughtered in nine different countries I know that animal abuse in abattoirs is not confined to Indonesia — it occurs in every country around the world, including our own. And every day, extraordinary stories of other individual animals unfold — but they are rarely if ever known.

Last week, 'Kate' — a fellow investigator — openly filmed the final moments of a group of young pigs in an abattoir in the Gippsland in Victoria. Though Australia's abattoir system is highly regulated, there is no guarantee that animals are protected from cruelty. In just 90 minutes, 'Kate' captured enough film to have this abattoir shut down indefinitely following formal complaints laid by Animals Australia.

Whilst watching this footage I reflected that for the first 38 years of my life I ate animals — completely unaware of the existence of factory farms, and ignorant of what animals experienced in slaughterhouses. Becoming informed was life-changing. No-one had reminded me that eating animals was a choice.

If there is a message that resounds from the animals' stories in this film, it is that we have a choice. That regulations and standards didn't protect these animals from cruelty — and that even if they had — that they would still have been afraid, that they still would have suffered.

The story of their final moments is so seldom known or told — yet it desperately needs it to be, because we live on, and we still have choices to make...

They need us to make informed and compassionate ones.

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/investigations/final-moments/

For the animals.

Lyn White
Investigator & Campaign Director
Animals Australia