RSPCA hits back at senator's claims

SYDNEY (AAP) - The RSPCA has denounced as baseless a Liberal senator's claim that Indonesian abattoir workers were paid to abuse cattle for television cameras.
Footage of the abuse, aired on the ABC's Four Corners program in June, led to a temporary ban on live cattle exports while the government attempted to clean up Indonesia's slaughter practices.
A Senate committee, investigating animal welfare practices in Australia's live export markets, heard from the RSPCA and Animals Australia on Wednesday.
But representatives were subjected to interrogation by coalition senators who questioned the veracity of the abuse claims.
Liberal senator Chris Back said a taxi driver used by Animals Australia made payments to meat workers to abuse cattle.
The animal welfare organisation has denied any knowledge of the payments.
RSPCA Australia boss Heather Neil said she was bitterly disappointed with the hearing.
"This was a forum to talk about the endemic cruelty in the live export industry," she said on Thursday.
"Very few questions related to the terms of reference of the inquiry."
Senator Back's line of questioning was not only baseless but "deeply offensive" for anyone working to protect animals from cruelty, she said.
The RSPCA conducted a thorough scientific analysis of the hours and hours of raw footage from Indonesia, Ms Neil said.
"There is absolutely no doubt that cruelty is routine and widespread."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott defended Senator Back's claim, saying he had every right to bring his thoughts and evidence to upper house inquiries.
"It's up to the committee to make appropriate judgments, to give us an appropriate report," he told reporters in Perth.
When asked whether he backed Senator Back's line of questioning, Mr Abbott said: "He is a senator, he has material he is going to present to the Senate committee and that's a perfectly appropriate thing for him to do."
Since the export ban was lifted in early July, only Elders and Austrex have been granted export permits under a new regulatory framework.
The first load of cattle was exported on Wednesday from Darwin.
But just days into the resumption, Animals Australia says it has fresh evidence of slaughterhouse cruelty.
The activist group says it has obtained footage that shows cattle being treated inhumanely at abattoirs in Turkey, and passed it on to Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig's staff on Wednesday.
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) managing director Scott Hansen said the organisation had not been privy to the footage.
"We've neither been shown nor seen the footage out of Turkey," he told a breakfast held by the Rural Press Club in Brisbane on Thursday.
Animals Australia executive director Glenys Oogjes says the footage shows cattle being hoisted while conscious before their throats are slit.
"What this footage provides is further evidence that Meat and Livestock Australia continues to enter new markets ... without checking what the standards are," she said.
"There are practices that are below even the minimal international animal welfare standards, let alone being in accord with Australian standards."
The cattle in the Turkish footage were not stunned, also a breach of standards applied in Australian abattoirs.
Ms Oogjes said Animals Australia couldn't confirm if the cattle shown in the footage were from Australia, only that Australian sheep and cattle were processed at the facilities.
Turkish abattoirs process eight per cent of Australia's live cattle exports.