Veterinarians stationed inside Australia’s export abattoirs have revealed shocking instances of animal cruelty, including an incident in which more than 100 sheep died from hypothermia. Leaked documents also show government veterinarians have repeatedly blown the whistle internally about “profound problems” in the oversight of the export meat industry.
To protect animal welfare and satisfy major trading partners, the Australian government employs vets inside abattoirs that are licensed to export meat.
But internal records and accounts from five vets who have worked inside export abattoirs expose concerns that the system is failing.
A four-month Guardian Australia investigation can reveal:
More than 100 sheep died from hypothermia and exposure after an animal transport truck drove for nine hours through heavy rain in 2022, according to leaked reports. One veterinarian whistleblower described the incident as “horrific”. It went unpunished.
Disturbing animal welfare breaches went unreported to state regulators, an explosive whistleblower disclosure alleges. In a direct complaint to a former agriculture minister, one whistleblower vet described finding a cow that had a decomposing calf stuck in its pelvic canal. Instead of reporting the incident as a welfare breach, he said his superiors apologised to the owners of the abattoir after the vet intervened to help the animal.
An understaffing crisis has left some abattoirs unmonitored for long stretches of time, according to whistleblower vets in New South Wales. In an extraordinary joint complaint filed by more than half the state’s export abattoir vets, the situation was described as so bad that it risked putting Australia in breach of its trade obligations.
Powers to detect and act on animal welfare breaches have been progressively watered down, including through rule changes restricting vets’ access to pens to inspect animals, according to multiple current and former vets.
At least one vet has been diagnosed with PTSD, saying they felt isolated and unsupported by managers, while others say they have been left vulnerable to bullying and intimidation, and unable to meet their legal and ethical obligations as registered vets.
The Guardian can reveal multiple internal and external whistleblower complaints across a four-year period have triggered two formal investigations within the department, which administers the on-plant veterinarian (OPV) program.
The federal agriculture department has rejected allegations that the integrity of its export abattoir oversight program is compromised, saying it is adequately staffed and that it “takes regulatory action, where appropriate, for breaches of animal welfare requirements”.
But leaked documents show that, even where significant animal welfare incidents linked to export abattoirs are referred to state regulators, they are going unpunished.
In 2022, a truck carrying 600 sheep from Victoria to central-west NSW drove through heavy rain and frigid conditions to get to an export abattoir, leaving the sheep on top of the trailer exposed to the elements.
The truck travelled nine hours in total, stopping at midday for a welfare check, according to the transport company, and then carrying on for another four hours before 103 sheep were discovered either dead or dying.
Internal reports and photos describe distressing scenes of mass death onboard the truck. The sheep left alive were shivering and could not stand. Many had to be euthanised.
The incident was referred to Agriculture Victoria for investigation. It closed the investigation with no repercussions for the transport company beyond reminding it that it was compelled under national standards to “take reasonable steps to minimise the impact of extreme weather conditions on the welfare of livestock”.
A spokesperson for Agriculture Victoria said: “All prosecution decisions are made impartially and with careful consideration of both mitigating and aggravating factors. We ensure that every case is assessed fairly and responsibly.”
Vet ‘isolated and unsupported’
In 2023, a veterinarian who had spent three years with the agriculture department working inside export abattoirs in NSW and Victoria penned a damning whistleblower complaint to the then agriculture minister, Murray Watt.
The vet said that, while many of the abattoirs he worked in were competently and professionally run with few welfare incidents, he had witnessed disturbing incidents that had gone unreported to state regulators.
During one 2017 audit meeting, he said he witnessed his departmental manager discouraging abattoir staff from reporting an instance of animal cruelty – a pig being struck in the head prior to arriving at the facility – to the Victorian state regulator.
“After the meeting I commented that I was surprised by the [field operations manager’s] response. I stated the animal was clearly injured and suffering,” he said.
“The FOM’s response was to reply ‘I wish you hadn’t told me that’. This was a comment I was to hear many times as I worked as an OPV.”
In another alleged incident, while working at a hot boning plant in Victoria in 2018, he said he was discovering dead cattle on trucks on an almost daily basis.
“In each case this should have triggered an animal welfare incident report,” the whistleblower said. “The responsible [area technical manager] was however not able to provide any support for OPVs who wanted to proceed in this manner.”
The whistleblower described an “extreme example” in Victoria in mid-2018, where he found a “cow with a calf stuck in its pelvic canal” in the holding yard. He later learned the calf had likely been there for five days.
“I informed the staff who were accompanying me that I would remove the calf. I proceeded to remove the calf – a job not made more pleasant by the fact the calf disintegrated in my hands.”
“An event such as this should have triggered an animal welfare incident report. Sadly, the responsible [manager] was too weak in character and instead told me he had apologised to the plant’s Quality Assurance Manager.
“Apparently the OPV is not supposed to render assistance to suffering animals. This ludicrous situation is emblematic of the failure of the OPVs being able to do their job correctly.”
He said he had been left isolated and unsupported, including by managers in the bureaucracy who he said had no technical expertise in veterinary science. He has now been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The allegations to the minister prompted an internal departmental investigation, which substantiated much of the complaint. But the investigation found that the conduct did not rise to the level of “disclosable conduct”, which includes corruption, abuse of office or illegal conduct, and therefore could be dealt with internally by the department, rather than being referred to an external investigations body.
The author of the 2023 complaint declined to comment further. The department also declined to comment on the whistleblower complaint.
Claims abattoirs left without oversight
The whistleblower’s allegations echo a previous internal and external complaint, lodged by about half the OPV workforce in NSW.
The vets took the extraordinary step of filing a joint complaint to the commonwealth ombudsman, alleging that the system was so understaffed and mismanaged that it risked Australia’s trading partners taking action to restrict access to their markets, should it be discovered.
The 2019 complaint, seen by the Guardian, alleges understaffing at NSW facilities had left some abattoirs without federal veterinarian oversight for up to 20 days a year. The complaint said that about half the NSW facilities have been left without a permanent veterinarian presence, relying instead on relief staff.
Under international trade obligations export abattoirs are not allowed to operate without a government-employed veterinarian present. The complaint to the ombudsman said that rostering documentation submitted to the department did not reflect the reality of the understaffing crisis.
“These rosters are regularly completed to look compliant but do not reflect reality,” the complaint alleges. “It is our opinion that this contains a significant hidden threat if discovered by foreign auditors.”
Understaffing was also raised in the more recent whistleblower complaint to then minister Watt. That complaint said the department had struggled to attract veterinarian staff for decades. “There are near weekly crises as vets cannot be found to be present on site – because for each export establishment to operate there is a requirement that an authorised OPV must be present.”
In a series of interviews with the Guardian, five current and former on-plant veterinarians described a workplace with traumatised staff, alleged mismanagement and low morale.
Multiple vets claimed the understaffing crisis was so bad that some NSW abattoirs were operating without supervision.
“They couldn’t recruit because they were incompetent and they couldn’t make the job attractive to anyone,” one alleged. “They were running without any OPV supervision, which is a trade obligation that they have, so they were in default of the overseas importing country requirements, the EU and US mainly, but most of the other countries as well.
“At the same time they were ramping up the costs because they were sending people from across the country … into NSW to cover positions for a day.”
The department declined to comment specifically on the 2019 commonwealth ombudsman complaint.
But it rejected claims that the system was understaffed or that abattoirs had been left unmonitored, saying it had a staff of 162 OPVs and only required 110 to meet industry needs.
‘Entire markets will be lost overnight’
Last year, an experienced vet working in abattoirs for the agriculture department resigned over rule changes that he says left him unable to properly safeguard animal welfare.
The changes restricted vets from entering pens to inspect animals up close prior to slaughter. The vet’s resignation letter, seen by the Guardian, said this would leave him unable to fulfil his obligations as a registered vet.
“This will mean that in some instances, especially with small stock, it will not be possible to perform an effective ante-mortem inspection,” he wrote.
“As a registered veterinarian in NSW, animal welfare is the required primary concern and consideration in the practice of veterinary science. The directions I have been given are inconsistent with meeting this requirement and I cannot accept the offer of employment as an OPV.”
Other staff have told the Guardian that their ability to act on animal welfare has been progressively watered down. One said the current system is too reliant on self-reporting by abattoir companies.
“This is one of the conflicts we have as OPVs,” he said. “You have to be registered, and being registered means you have serious legal obligations to look after animal welfare, so you’re obliged to take action whenever you’re confronted with a significant welfare incident.”
He said abattoir staff were generally happy to disclose animal welfare incidents upstream – during transport, at farms or in saleyards, for example.
“But anything that got too close to home that might have involved the actual abattoir itself, they would try to water it down dramatically,” he said.
Vets were still able to take action where they knew an abattoir had failed to self-report. But two whistleblowers said they frequently felt they had no backing from their managers to raise welfare issues, or were actively discouraged from doing so.
When they did, they said they felt vulnerable to complaints or intimidation and pressure from industry on the department, which they feared could get them transferred or sacked.
One veterinarian likened their role to “window dressing”.
Another told the Guardian they believed that “entire markets” would be “lost overnight” if foreign auditors were made aware of the situation.
“Our animal welfare is one of Australia’s marketing strengths,” he said. “If lost, markets will also be lost.”
The department rejected suggestions that it had banned veterinarians from entering pens to conduct ante-mortem inspections of animals, saying they were still able to do so where proper work health and safety measures were in place.
But documents seen by the Guardian show the department last year told vets to stay out of pens unless the animals are properly restrained by a livestock handler. Vets say this is practically impossible in most abattoir settings and represents an effective ban.
“Most abattoirs don’t have adequate facilities to restrain livestock during ante mortem inspection,” one said. “It is not practical either when you are required to inspect hundreds to thousands of animals each day.”
The department also rejected any suggestion that its staff were restricted from making animal welfare reports to state regulators, saying it was able to do so where abattoirs didn’t self-report.
“OPVs are encouraged to contact the department’s senior veterinary technical managers for support in undertaking these actions if they need to do so.”
The allegations come as Australian farmers face significant uncertainty over the US president Donald Trump’s tariff plans, which have included plans to target Australian beef exports.
The US Department of Agriculture said in a statement it regularly reviews Australia’s laws, regulations and inspection documents, and conducted in-country audits, and is satisfied with the conditions at Australian abattoirs.
Its most recent inspection in August 2022 “did not identify any deficiencies regarding ante-mortem inspection and humane handling and slaughter”, a spokesperson said.
An inherent conflict of interest?
Animals Australia, a leading animal protection group, says OPVs are being placed in an inherently compromised situation.
“They are completely disempowered in their ability to act on animal welfare incidents,” Animals Australia’s legal counsel, Shatha Hamade, alleged. “The systemic culture of bullying and intimidation of OPVs … had led to a slippery slope for animals.”
Hamade argued that the department itself was in a conflicted position, responsible for both boosting meat exports and trade, while also monitoring animal welfare incidents through its staff of OPVs.
“Every animal welfare group in Australia has been jumping up and down about this inherent conflict of interest for decades,” she said. “It’s like the fox guarding the hen house. We’ve seen it with the live animal export industry, we’ve seen it with export abattoirs – it just doesn’t work.”
The only way to remove the conflict, she said, was to establish an independent office for animal welfare, something animal protection groups had repeatedly called for.
One of the former on-plant veterinarians who spoke to the Guardian said that, generally, abattoirs “try to do the right thing” and are compliant with animal welfare rules – “but there are always individual exceptions”.
The department rejected the suggestion that it was inherently compromised in its regulatory responsibilities.
“The department has a robust regulatory framework and takes regulatory action, where appropriate, for breaches of animal welfare requirements,” a spokesperson said.
The Australian Meat Industry Council said it “strongly supports an effective and robust regulatory system for government oversight”.
