Night after night I have horrendous nightmares, I see those pleading eyes onboard the Live Export ships wanting me to save them. Just thinking of the fear these animals feel brings me to tears.          Knowing 338,091 people have signed this petition gives me hope that everyone is educating others about Live Exports and the horrors involved, this seems to be the ONLY way we will end this evil, disgusting, deceptive trade.        

PLEASE KEEP THE PROTEST/AWARENESS DAY IN MIND - 2ND NOVEMBER: MARTIN PLACE, SYDNEY: 9:15am. Stickers are still available for $2.                                                         The picture is of Howard who lives in SA and drives his mobile billboard around Adelaide CBD advocating Against Live Export! I Love Your Work Howard x

I received this from Anne Leeson, Anne is from a farming family in WA. A great read!

To the Editor,

I am from a WA farming family and I have a different perspective on live sheep export trade from many farmers and farming groups.
I would like to submit this opinion piece to you for your consideration.

I hate live export.
I detest every horrifying aspect of it.
I hate the scenes of the sheep in the trucks heading to the ship to be loaded - their faces showing terror and confusion.
I hate the scenes of them being loaded - all of them obediently skipping up the gangplank with no idea of the horrors that await.
I hate the scenes shown on programs like 60 Minutes - horrific vision that shows desperate sheep panting for breath, the heat and humidity taking a terrible toll as they struggle to breathe and live.
I hate how they're crowded together, lambs and sick sheep downed in the crush, drowning in their own waste.
I hate their pathetic, lifeless bodies thrown overseas like so much rubbish, their bodies leaving a sickly brown stain in the wake of the vile live export vessel.
I hate the fact that Liberal and Nationals politicians stand firmly behind this vile "trade", no matter what cruelties and horrors are revealed time and time again.
I hate the live exporters who know full well the horrors they subject these poor, gentle animals to, all in the name of making money.
And I hate farmers who continually claim they "love their animals" but are happy to keep taking the money.
But - and this may surprise some - I am not a so-called "greenie", or activist or "radical" (whatever that means), or any other of the many labels the supporters of this disgusting "trade" throw at its opponents.
I come from a fourth generation farming family of merino sheep and wheat.
We have lived and worked in our slice of rural WA for generations.
My family and I know how important it is to make money and stay viable on the land.
But I also know what's right and what's wrong.
And live export is wrong - no two ways about it.
It's cruel and horrific and it has lost its social licence.
If you are in any doubt about that consider the huge public uproar when the horrific pictures were broadcast by 60 Minutes.
Now the federal Department of Agriculture has refused the RSPCA a freedom of information request to hand over vision from a live export voyage - no prizes for guessing why - it must be horrific.
The reaction even prompted the Liberal/Nationals Coalition Government to act - not that it did much.
I am not the only one with a farming background or who lives in a rural area who thinks this way.
My brother and his sons who now operate the family farm now only farm grain - they will no longer be part of such a cruel "industry".
I know of many farmers who feel the same way.
So, don't believe for a moment that "all" farmers support this disgusting trade.
Many, many don't and many, many rural people don't and understand that it's cruel and unsustainable and needs to be consigned to the past.
It's time the Coalition Government and this tottering relic of the dark past realise it too. 

Sincerely,

Anne Leeson.