New PETA Investigation: Australian Cattle Are Still Being Butchered Alive in Indonesia

Jakarta/Perth – A new investigation by PETA has revealed that workers in Indonesia are still butchering live animals imported from Australia, despite the Australian government’s claims that the practice had been stopped.

The shocking new footage comes after a 2021 PETA Asia investigation documented that Australian cattle thrashed in agony as they were carved up in slaughterhouses – some of which were approved by the Australian government’s Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) – while still conscious.

The new footage shows two cows with Australian ear tags thrashing around on the slaughterhouse floor after workers cut open their throats. Both animals were still kicking, and one can be heard gurgling as they were dragged by the legs across the filthy floors and then hoisted. One of the cows continued to struggle until a worker cut deeper into their throat. The whistleblower was later caught and brutally assaulted by workers and forcibly taken to a police station, where authorities confiscated the memory card from their camera. A lawyer helped retrieve the card, but the relevant contents were deleted. PETA was able to restore part of the videos.

PETA Asia’s investigation revealed that some Australian cattle taken to slaughterhouses in Indonesia were physically restrained before their throats were slit. Credit: PETA Asia

“Investigation after investigation has revealed egregious abuse of Australian animals in the live-export industry, and still the Australian government has done nothing to stop it,” says PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on the public to take matters into their own hands and end their complicity in subjecting animals to this agony and terror by refusing to buy their flesh or skin and urging the government to end live export for all animals.”

In PETA Asia’s earlier exposé, investigators visited seven randomly selected slaughterhouses, some of which were part of ESCAS, and found that cows were put into restraint boxes and shot with a captive-bolt gun multiple times before their throats were eventually cut. Workers frequently failed to stun cattle effectively, while cows in some slaughterhouses weren’t stunned at all. These animals were simply put into a restraint box approved by the Australian government, and their throats were slit. One animal – whose head dangled by a strip of flesh – kicked frantically in terror and pain as a worker hacked at the remaining flesh to sever his head. Conscious cows were left to languish in pools of their blood for up to 12 minutes.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on this case, please visit PETAAsia.com or view the video on X, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. A broadcast-quality link is available here.

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