THE Livestock Collective is working through the process of becoming a registered charitable organisation, according to managing director Holly Ludeman.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Dr Ludeman spoke at the Live Export Update in Brookton last week as a guest of Federal Liberal MP for O'Connor, Rick Wilson, outlining the reason why being a charity would help them achieve their goals in providing the community with a realistic and authentic understanding of the live export trade for sheep and cattle.
She said funding had been so far provided by Rural Export and Trading WA, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and also LiveCorp, but with the ability for the industry to donate funds, it could continue its work with direct assistance from producers and other supporters and do much more.
"We are pushing hard to be a charity - to be able to take donations," Dr Ludeman said.
"Charity status would improve the funding situation."
The Livestock Collective, which includes the Sheep Collective and the Cattle Collective, has achieved all of its goals so far in the 12 months of being in operation.
Dr Ludeman said MLA had been supportive because they (The Livestock Collective) had been "more successful" in achieving their positive engagement outcomes than they had been.
"We get caught up in science - facts and figures - but we really need to share with them our stories," she said.
"They want to hear from someone authentic.
"We can't do what we do without your support and you sharing your stories."
Dr Ludeman said the footage that had been shown on 60 Minutes of sheep dying in deep muck on the Awassi Express in 2017 was not the reality she knew of the trade as an Australian accredited veterinarian who had been on voyages in the past.
As a result she took to making a video while on board a vessel and sent it to 200 politicians and invited them to tour a vessel to better understand the trade.
The footage covered the whole supply chain, from producers to truckies and feedlot stockmen, as well as the vessel's crew.
Last year about 400 people attended vessel tours in Fremantle where they had a first-hand look at how sheep were drafted, loaded and penned, as well as fed and watered in accordance with government regulations.
They were able to view the workings of the ship and assess the size and quality of the vessels - as well as get a feel for how the crew operated on a daily basis in running the ship.
They were able to ask questions and have their concerns addressed face-to-face by vets and stockmen, as well as exporters.
Dr Ludeman said the footage had 97,000 views on social media, which filled "a huge void of information that people hadn't seen".
"Every time we put out a video we got really good feedback from the industry," Dr Ludeman said.
"It was raw footage - people want to see what it's like on a voyage."
She said The Livestock Collective was "trying to target people that haven't seen the information before," particularly in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney.
The footage can be viewed on the website livestockcollective.com.au
With funding from MLA, the organisation has been able to host its Livestock Leaders program in Fremantle which also assists young people in how to communicate about the trade on social media and also to the media.
Dr Ludeman said on the back of the 60-year record success of the Al Kuwait voyage to Kuwait in June, which saw a 0.08 per cent mortality rate (28 sheep) out of 33,341 loaded, the collective was planning to put together a virtual vessel tour - which would be a valuable tool in reaching the target market during COVID-19 restrictions.
