The fit to load guide from meat and livestock Australia has been developed
to help you meet your legal obligations under the Australian animal welfare
standards for the land transport of livestock. Because it's an offence to
load and transport an animal in a way that causes or is likely to cause it
unnecessary harm this guide will help you decide if an animal is fit to be
loaded for transport by road or rail to anywhere in Australia. There's not a
whole lot of point bringing damaged livestock here because as the old saying
goes one bad apple in a barrel could spoil a whole barrel you know if
if a buyer is looking at a pen of stock and they're seeing stock that is just
substandard you know they're gonna make the assumption that there's more than
one in that particular light and will walk on to the next pen or that pen
will be significantly discounted.
An animal is not fit to load if it's not
strong enough to undertake the journey, unable to walk normally and can't bear
weight on all legs, severely emaciated or visibly dehydrated showing visible signs
of severe injury or distress, likely to be caused increased pain or distress
during transport, blind in both eyes or in late pregnancy. If an animal is unfit
to load your options include treating the animal and then transporting when
recovered, consulting a veterinary surgeon and then transporting only under
veterinary advice or humanely destroying the animal
it's the responsibility of the person in charge to ensure that animals are
prepared correctly and will cope well with the entire journey. Well-prepared
stock travel better, are less stressed and associated animal welfare issues are
avoided. You should plan the journey to include rest stops and inspections and
make sure the facilities including yards, races, loading ramps and vehicles are
well constructed and will not injure livestock. Rest recently mustered
livestock prior to loading and segregate animals appropriately. This includes
keeping horned animals away from non horns or keeping mothers with their young.
Once you begin the loading, handle livestock quietly and with minimum force
the maximum time off water will vary for different species and will need to be
adjusted down in hot dry weather and for the pregnant or young. For goats and
cattle over six months old and sheep over four months old the maximum time
off water is 48 hours with a minimum spell period of 36 hours. Spell time is
the period of time that stock must rest with access to food and water when the
maximum time off water has been reached. The maximum time off water is reduced to
between 24 and 28 hours for calves, kids and lambs or for pregnant or lactating
animals followed by a minimum spell period of 12 hours
transporters drivers and agents should always seek information about how long
animals have been off feed and water before loading if it's likely that the
journey will take more than 24 hours then the date and time when animals last had
access to water and when they were last inspected must be recorded by the person
in charge. Written information about who to contact in an emergency must also be
provided. Dry feed only such as hay can be offered prior to loading even if
water has been withheld. Whenever food or water is on offer make sure there's
enough space for every animal to access it as shy feeders become an issue when
space is limited. Consider giving electrolytes to animals during the
preparation period as it may help prevent physical stress during the long
journey. In the rare event of an accident involving heavy vehicles carrying
livestock, livestock assist is a 24-hour national hotline to coordinate emergency
responses - an important service to minimize harm to both drivers and
animals if something does go wrong there's some great fit-to-load guides
at the MLA so put out and I encourage everybody to look through those and
obviously you don't want to be transporting stock that are in the
late stages of pregnancy, you don't want to be transporting stock that are blind
in both eyes or cripples but just makes great economic sense to make sure
that we've got the right animal welfare outcomes