Concern over transporters' exposure to new animal welfare laws
By Rob McKay | February 3, 2011
Upgrading the National Vendor Declaration and Waybill is to be an important focus for Australian Livestock Transporters’ Association (ALTA) in the coming year, Executive Director Philip Halton told ATN today.
With new animal welfare legislation in force and greater accountability stemming from that, ALTA fears transporters will remain vulnerable without reform due to not having the requisite information.
In ALTA’s weekly newsletter, Halton emphasised that if the industry was not to be “burdened with the cost (and unreliability) of generating millions of scraps of paper to accompany every movement of stock across the country, the National Vendor Declaration needs to evolve to meet all the industry’s changing needs – producers, transporters and processors”.
The issue had come into the sharper relief recently with “time off feed” regulations for bobby calves coming into the general media spotlight.
ALTA fears that, though they are aimed at producers, saleyards and processors, transporters may face collateral damage from zealous inspectors looking for easy targets.
The problem will be compounded given that proposed national laws on bobby calf transport were ambiguous on information transfer responsibilities and obligations.