Animal Welfare

Good Animal Welfare is our Priority! The NTCA does not condone animal cruelty or bad animal welfare practice.

Good animal welfare makes good sense, and the NTCA supports initiatives to continually improve welfare along the entire production and supply chain.

Good animal welfare also delivers improved productivity, production and economic returns.

Building a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by our industry across the wider community is a priority for the NTCA, and animal welfare is no exception.

Australia is recognized as the world leader in animal welfare through our voluntary and legislative standards. As a major supplier of food to  the world, including live cattle to Indonesia the welfare of our cattle is critical.

Today our industry is setting world first standards with the introduction of supply chain assurance to the Indonesian market and the roll out of similar standards to all Australian live export markets by the end of 2012.

The supply chain assurance standards, regulated by the Australian government see a system of animal traceability, audit and reporting through live export supply chains to ensure animals pass only through systems and facilities which meet world animal welfare standards and above.

As producers we would like to see our animals treated in the same manner as they are here in Australia and that includes the use of stunning for all animals.  

As our largest market for live animals Indonesia is a developing country with a dispersed population and food processing sector which in many cases does not have the luxury of refridgeration, making fresh food essential to the lives of many families.  Live cattle do provide a way of getting protein to a section of the market where frozen or chilled meat is not an alternative, however this market can only be sustained within a sound welfare and ethical framework with supply chain assurance.