To the Honourable President and Members of the Senate in the Parliament assembled.

This petition of the undersigned citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the Senate the stress and extreme suffering caused to cattle, sheep and goats during their assembly, land transportation and loading in Australia, shipment overseas, and then unloading and local transportation, feedlotting, handling, and finally slaughter without stunning in importing countries.

Further, we ask the Senate to note that heat stress, disease, injury, inadequate facilities, inadequate supervision and care, and incidents such as on board fires, ventilation breakdowns, storms and rejection of shipments contribute to high death rates each year, e.g. 73,700 sheep and 2,238 cattle died on board export ships in 2002. Many thousands more suffer cruel practices prior to scheduled slaughter.

We the undersigned therefore call upon the Senate to establish an inquiry into all aspects of live animal exports from Australia, with particular reference to animal welfare, to be conducted by the Senate's References Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport.