Live Music, Not Live Export
Every year, around 2 billion terrified animals are shipped around the world, only to be savagely slaughtered for their flesh and skin when they arrive at their destinations. International Awareness Day to Ban Live Exports (14 June) is a time to remember the victims of this terrible trade and advocate for an end to such unnecessary suffering.
The Australian government knows about the appalling conditions on live-export ships and the wretched ways in which animals are killed, yet it continues to fund and profit from this industry.
Over the years, Australia has wasted enormous sums of taxpayers’ money reviewing, reporting on, reprimanding, and subsidising an industry that systematically abuses animals. We urgently need a shift in spending priorities.
It’s been an exceptionally difficult year for the arts, as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted concerts, music festivals, and other live shows.
Recently, more than 3,500 people in the music industry – including Bernard Fanning, Missy Higgins, Midnight Oil, Sarah Blasko, and Jenny Morris, the chair of the Australasian Performing Right Association – signed an open letter to the federal government, asking for urgent financial support for the sector.
And we agree – it’s time to support live music, not live export!
Live-export ships could also be the source of the next pandemic. A colossal 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans have been transmitted by other animals. Just as live-animal markets and slaughterhouses are potential breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases, so, too, are live-export ships – and the risks only increase with worldwide travel.
As most of Australia’s industries went into lockdown during 2020 to ensure the public’s safety, live-export companies continued to send ships back and forth among our shores, Asia, and the Middle East, even though 20 crewmembers on a boat that arrived at Fremantle in Western Australia tested positive for COVID-19.
Keen to help us raise awareness of issues affecting animals and performing artists? Share a selfie on your Instagram and Facebook accounts with a sign that reads, “Live Music, Not Live Export!” You can download a sign here or make one yourself.
Be sure to tag PETA Australia in your Instagram post!
Please also join us in demanding that the Australian government end this cruel trade:
Let’s make 2025 a historic year for animals
