Sheep trade protests target export director

AN unusual form of protest took to the streets of Perth last week.

In the quiet western suburb of Cottesloe about 30 people protesting against live sheep exports broke the relaxed Sunday morning silence.

However, this peaceful but direct protest was not on a main road – it was held on the front lawn of the home of Emanuel Exports director Michael Stanton.

Well, at least the protesters thought it was Mr Stanton’s home until they were hurried off by a concerned neighbour, who informed them Mr Stanton lived in another house at the rear of the same block.

The protest was directed at Mr Stanton because WA Greens claim his company was involved with the controversial Cormo Express shipment to the Middle East.

A spokeswoman from protest group, The Black Sheep said they had looked up Mr Stanton’s name through company records and then sought his address through the public phone book.

She said the direct protest was meant to put faces to the people who profited from the live export industry.

“We feel that our right to prick their conscious overrides their right to privacy,” the spokeswoman said.

“There are only a handful of people who profit from the trade and it is not the farmers.”

She said if the export of live animals ceased, only a very small number of people would lose their jobs while thousands of meat workers would regain their jobs.

Greens MP Jim Scott said it was important to note that the owners of the Al Kuwait, Livestock Transport and Trading also owns Rural Export and Trading WA (RETWA), a company banned from exporting livestock in January because of a poor record of animal care that Agriculture Minister Warren Truss called “unacceptable”.

The RETWA company is also linked with alleged Cormo Express exporter, Emanuel Exports, through managing director Graham Daws who is also on the board of LiveCorp.

Mr Scott said it was appalling that more live sheep were being exported at this time and morally unacceptable that the Federal Government was allowing a banned exporter with a changed name to do it.

Protestors were also demanding that the Federal Government reveal the full details of the deal struck with Eritrea last week to unload the sheep from the Cormo Express.

Mr Stanton could not be reached for comment.