Trade, Health and
the Commodification
of Farm Animals
Acknowledgements:
2nd Global Animal Law Conference, Barcelona 2014.
Marguerite Kuzma, EU Policy Coordinator
Professor David Favre
Steven Wise
Professor David Cassuto
Professor Peter Sankoff
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Copyright Regulations 1969
WARNING
This material has been reproduced and communicated to
you by or on behalf of the University of Sydney
pursuant to Part VB of the Copyright Act 1968 (the
Act).
The material in this communication may be subject
to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction or
communication of this material by you may be the
subject of copyright protection under the Act.
Do not remove this notice.
This material is also the subject of copyright in original material not falling within the ambit of Part VB of the Act.
ABC exposé, A Bloody Business
• 1980 Farid Fares disaster 40,000 sheep die when livestock
carrier catches fire and sinks
• 1996 67,000 sheep die on board Uniceb
• 1999 Deaths at sea – 800 Cattle suffocate when ship’s generator fails
• 2003 Cormo Express Incident – 57,000 sheep rejected by Saudi
Arabia (5,581 die on board)
• 2012 Ocean Drover Incident -sheep rejected by Kuwait and Bahrain,
More than 7,000 sheep were culled by Pakastani Disease Control
Authorities “Like a giant mass of wool, bloodied and filthy,
they lay in trenches, slit open, stabbed or clubbed to death,
while many still wriggled with some life left in them, soon to
be buried alive.”
The Commodification Pathway
The commodification pathway is described as: a utilitydriven means of animal management that does not
engage meaningfully with animal wellbeing, leading to
regulatory failures.
utility-driven;
animal
wellbeing;
regulatory failure;
misconfiguration of the
human-animal relationship.
Utility-Driven
based on the usefulness of the managed
entity.
• Categories of usefulness and categories of worthlessness
• Legitimise human-centred view of animals’ usefulness or
worthlessness
• Prioritize animals’ instrumental value, determined by
the relevant “market”; Based on price, rather than
regard to worth.
Tauger’s view - once this happens it transforms
animals into commodities.
• Fosters moral pluralism
• utility-driven regulation legitimises law and policy that
prioritises commercial biases and human-centred views
of usefulness, making the law complicit in animal
commodification
Growth
of Markets
Supply chain becomes less
linear
Commercial bias
Role of technology
Animal Wellbeing
 Animal
 Early
 Seeds
 Role
Cruelty
legislation
of Regulatory Failure
of Quarantine
 International
Veterinary Conferences
 Intergovernmental
 Standardisation
trade
 Animal
Conventions/Instruments
of requirements in international
Health = trade/production issue
Animal Cruelty
Enlightenment
Animal
Cruelty omnipresent
to a certain extent mistreatment of animals was
embedded in popular culture. English people in
this period amused themselves by watching bear
and bull bating, cockfights…Hurting livestock was
typically not a form of entertainment so much as
a symptom of frustration, fatigue or indifference.
Farmers might beat recalcitrant animals, feed
them short rations... ignore illnesses. Few formal
sanctions restrained either negligence or outright
brutality. ...
Virginia De John Anderson , Creatures of Empire, How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America,
Oxford University Press (2004), 92.
Cattle are battered so violently that they
cannot open their eyelids – At the end of
the day to distinguish the bought from the
unbought animals, the bottom of the
latter’s tail is cut but so carelessly that they
drip with blood and suffer needlessly.
Treated as brutally as cattle, sheep have
savage dogs set upon them to tear out their
flesh if they do not obey.
Moira Ferguson, Animal Advocacy and Englishwomen 1780-1900, The University of
Michigan Press (2001), 45.)
Early legislation
Acts

1635 in Ireland, Act against Plowing by the Tayle, and Pulling the Wooll off Living
Sheep [None shall plow or work horses by the tail.]

1822, in UK the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, (St Martin’s Act)
Bills

1767 in Ireland A Bill for Regulating Abuses Committed in Buying and Selling of Cattle
and Sheep in the Market of Smithfield in the City of Dublin

1779 in Ireland A bill to Prohibit the Exportation of Rams, Lambs or Sheep Alive

1800 in UK Putney’s Bull Baiting Bill

1802 in UK Dent’s Bull Baiting Bill

1809 in UK Cruelty to Animals Bill (targeting horses)
 1835
in UK Cruelty to Animals Act
proscribed baiting of animals
 1876
in UK Cruelty to Animals Act, dealt
with animal experimentation
 1850
in NSW Cruelty to Animals Act
One hundred years ago, the word “animal,”
would have elicited visions of ‘ “horse,” “cow,”
“food,” “work,” etc. Today, however, the
majority of the population would give the answer
“dog,” “cat,” or “pet.” Repeated studies show
that almost 100% of the pet-owning population
views their animals as members of the family.!’
Bernard Rollin, ‘Animal Ethics and the Law’, (2008) 106 Michigan Law Review
First Impressions, 143, 144.
Seeds of Regulatory Failure
regulatory failure is more likely to happen
where national laws provide piece-meal
coverage during a time when an issue
“grows in prominence” but is yet to
capture national consensus
(Hallinan and Pierce)
Role of Quarantine
Links
to Trade
Not standardised
Contagionsists v Anti-contagionists
John Gamgee
International Veterinary Conferences
First International veterinary animal conference June 1863 held in
Hamburg.
The vast majority of participants was German or German-speaking
from Switzerland and Austria there were a few Scandinavian
representatives but no French names can be found among the many
contributors to the discussions. Only one Englishman kept Gamgee
company, William Field, vice-president of the Royal Veterinary
Society. (Lise Wilkinson, Animals and Disease, An introduction to the History of Comparative
Medicine, Cambridge University Press (1992)
World Veterinary Association • Avenue de Tervueren, 12 - B-1040 Bruxelles - Belgium
Intergovernmental Conventions/Instruments
1871 Austria convened an International Conference to
standardise the rules of international trade in animals
On March 16, 1871, the Austrian Government had
hosted the International Conference at Vienna for the
attainment of a uniform proceeding against
rinderpest attended by delegates from Austria,
Belgium, Britain, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy,
Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Serbia and Turkey.
(Spinage)
The First General meeting of the National
Veterinary Association 1883
 Report of the 8th international veterinary
congress vol 2 Budapest, 1905
 Report of the proceedings of the Pan-african
veterinary conference convened at Pretoria on
the 12th, 13th, and 14th January, 1909 by His
Excellency the Governor, at the request of
General Botha, Prime Minister, Transvaal, for the
purpose of considering matters of inter-colonial
importance in connection with diseases of stock
 The Tenth international veterinary congress vol 1
& 2 London, August 3-8, 1914

1887 Convention Designed to Remove the Danger
of Epizootic Diseases in the Territories of Two
Countries, entered into between Austria-Hungary
and Italy, (the convention was ratified by the
parties on 2 May 1888)
 1924 International Agreement For The Creation Of
An Office International Des Epizooties In Paris
(World Animal Health Organization).
 1928 Convention between the United States of
America and the United Mexican States for the
Prevention of Diseases of Livestock, (entered into
force 18 January 1930).

Standardisation of requirements in
international trade
The 1871 Conference convened by Austria drew up “six Principles for an International
Regulation for the Extinction of the Cattle Plague”.






Every country was to communicate direct by telegraph, information
of every outbreak as quickly as possible and should publish a
weekly bulletin on the state of the plague.
Every country should initiate a veterinary strategy
Compensation to be paid for stock and goods destroyed by order
equal to their value
All objects used for transport of stock to be disinfected before
being used again.
Conditions covering international trade when cattle plague has
broken out
Measures to extinguish the cattle plague
Animal Health = trade/production issue

Veterinary advances

commercial problem of how to maintain trade while
preventing the introduction of pests and diseases.

externalises animal wellbeing leading to animal suffering
If a nineteenth-century agriculturalist had tried to put
100,000 egg-laying hens in cages in a building, they all
would have died of disease in a month; today, such
systems dominate…causing new and unprecedented
degrees of suffering
Bernard Rollin, ‘Animal Ethics and the Law’, (2008) 106 Michigan Law Review First Impressions, 143, 145.
 animal
diseases in production systems carry
economic consequences, which are understood
in terms of the animal as a commodity.
 animal
health also carries a moral dimension
intricately connected to individual animal
wellbeing.
 Starting

to be understood
OIE definition of animal
welfare
means how an animal is
coping with the
conditions in which it
lives. An animal is in a
good state of welfare if
(as indicated by
scientific evidence) it is
healthy, comfortable,
well nourished, safe,
able to express innate
behaviour, and if it is
not suffering from
unpleasant states such
as pain, fear, and
distress.
RSPCA Five Freedoms





Freedom from hunger and thirst: by
ready access to fresh water and a diet
to maintain full health and vigour.
Freedom from discomfort: by
providing an appropriate environment
including shelter and a comfortable
resting area.
Freedom from pain, injury or
disease: by prevention through rapid
diagnosis and treatment.
Freedom to express normal
behaviour: by providing sufficient
space, proper facilities and company
of the animal’s own kind.
Freedom from fear and distress: by
ensuring conditions and treatment
which avoid mental suffering.