Vicki Steggall: Historian by profession, monthly SLE donor

A comment made many years ago by a sheep exporter, who joked about how nice it was for his aging wethers to be sent on a cruise to the Middle East, was the first Vicki Steggall heard of the industry.

“Like so many Australians I presumed the industry was strictly regulated. After all, these were Australian sheep. And in all the decades that followed, we heard almost nothing until Animals Australia shone a light.  It was then I realised how wrong I’d been,” explains Vicki, a historian by profession who has been a monthly Stop Live Exports donor for many years.

“Once I knew, I felt a deep unease. How could Australia have been doing this for 50 years or more? And how can farmers, who claim to look after their animals, send them off on journeys of prolonged suffering, ending in crude slaughter?  Until Animals Australia acted, Australian sheep were even photographed tied up inside car boots, having been sold off to families for home slaughter.”

Vicki says she understands that farmers’ livelihoods can be precarious and they need to make money. The current $139m financial package could be used to help the industry transition to a more modern and acceptable alternative.

“After all, every other business has had to adapt in order to survive over the past half century, why shouldn’t the live export industry? And – it’s being paid to do so.

“No one is saying to not kill these sheep. But slaughter them in Australia in facilities that can cater for halal and kosher requirements – or think up more creative ways to process the meat for international sales.

“The only strong supporters of live export are those who profit from it – which tells you something.  Well, they’ve had 50 years of profit. Enough is enough.  This essentially ‘unfixable’ industry needs to change and realign with people’s expectations.”  

Vicki points out that in 2023, nearly 44,000 people signed a parliamentary petition in favour of a phase out of live sheep export – one of the largest e-petitions in Australia’s history. ‘You don’t need to be an animal lover to understand that live export is wrong and feel horror,’ she says.

“Exporters now evidently judge their welfare success by how many animals die at sea, but the bottom line, as one of the observing vets once said, is that the survivors on board are having a truly terrible time.

“Another vet has described cutting animal’s throats to stop the suffering of sheep whose body temperature had become so high they were essentially cooking alive.

“Live sheep export has always been a particularly dark and terrible chapter in Australia’s history. Now that we know, right-minded people are not looking away. It’s archaic and must end. I’m not at all surprised that so many Australians share that view.”