Will camel industry get over the hump?
By ERWIN CHLANDA
The transfer to Aboriginal interests, including the Central Land Council, of a vast part of the Simpson Desert – a favourite place for off-road enthusiasts and naturalists – has revived discussion about feral camels roaming there.
Queenslander Paddy McHugh, who has 40 years of experience in catching, training and internationally trading camels, says the herd of up to a million in the Simpson presents massive commercial opportunities, principally meat sales to Muslim countries.
Mr McHugh says catching camels is easy: You put a water trough in a “trap yard” and close the gate behind them when they come in to drink.
From there it could be a simple process to develop an international industry.
This can take the place of the barbarous method of dealing with what’s considered a plague – shooting 160,000 camels from helicopters and on the ground and letting their bodies rot in the desert. This was a Federally funded $19m program between 2009 and 2013, in association with Desert Knowledge in Alice Springs.
The obvious way to start, says Mr McHugh, would be on the periphery of the desert and close to Indigenous communities where unemployment is rampant but dealing with livestock is still a living memory: That could include Harts Range, Santa Teresa, Finke, Andado, Docker River and townships in the top end of the Pitjantjatjara Lands.
These are also locations from which road trains can or could operate.
The obvious place for a camel abattoir would be Alice Springs. Mr McHugh counsels against live exports – too expensive and fraught with animal cruelty concerns.
He says additional to markets in Australia for lean meat very low in fat there would be a huge and growing demand for camel products by Muslims around the world.
This would include camel milk that sells for $25 a litre and up.
He says in the past halal compliant slaughtering has been a difficult issue.
However, a Fatawaa was issued in 2013 about the Sharia view on the Impact of Stunning Animals before the Slaughter.
“If the stunning renders the animal unconscious but remains alive in the sense that it could wake up after some time, then slaughtering it while in such state is considered an Islamic form of slaughter.
“Butchers use this technique (stunning) out of mercy to the animal and to facilitate the slaughtering process.
“Consequently, if the stunning doesn’t kill the animal, then it is permissible to eat the meat of the animal which … was slaughtered according to the Islamic form.”
Camels being loaded for flight to Middle East.