Whinging vegans accuse farmers of ‘TORTURING’ cows by installing electric shock collars on cattle

Animal activists have labelled electric shock collars for use on cattle, which have become newly legal, as the equivalent of farmers torturing cows. 

Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Ashley Manicaros said the collars were a useful tool in stopping cattle wandering onto unfenced roads where they were a hazard to people and themselves.

‘Because of the vastness of the Northern Territory, the ability to move, track and control cattle is vital,’ he said. 

Acting Primary Industry Minister Nicole Manison gazetted an exemption to the animal welfare act in the Northern Territory on Wednesday that would allow farmers to use the collars for one year if they have a license.

The eShepard collars are solar powered and work on GPS technology. If an animal wanders outside a virtual fence line, the eShepard delivers an audio warning and then a ‘mild’ electric shock.

A CSIRO trial finished in 2008 with positive conclusions but was considered too expensive for mass production at the time.

However, PETA has referred to the technology as ‘torture devices’ and said ‘some people’ had compared them to causing pain equivalent ‘to being stabbed in the neck’.

The website for the product, however, says that it is much safer than existing technology.

‘eShepherd is much safer than electric fences because animals can never become entangled in the wire and subject to uncontrolled shocks,’ the company’s website says.  

Acting Primary Industry Minister Nicole Manison gazetted an exemption to the animal welfare act in the Northern Territory on Wednesday that would allow farmers to use the collars for one year if they have a license