Mental health fears rise over Australia cattle ban

SYDNEY — Fears mounted Tuesday over the mental health of farmers hit hard by Australia's ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia as one stockman prepared to shoot 3,000 cows he cannot afford to keep.Nico Botha, of Moola Bulla station in Western Australia, told state broadcaster ABC that he would begin killing the animals as soon as Wednesday."We'd rather shoot them now than go through overgrazing, dying in the paddocks, struggling to get the paddocks better again," he said."That's going to take us another three years, so (we'd) rather do our decision now than go through all the other dramas."Botha said he knew of other cattle farmers who would also have to cull following the government's decision to halt exports a month ago, after a public outcry about shocking images of mistreatment in Indonesian slaughterhouses.Indonesia and Australia are yet to agree on mutual slaughter standards which must be in place before cattle can be shipped north again.Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig has said he could not predict when live exports to Indonesia would resume, with the suspension set to last anywhere up to November.Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association executive director Luke Bowen said the longer the ban was in place the harder it would become for farmers to survive, with mental illness now a major concern."Every producer is facing problems in terms of feed supply and their financial position and the longer the situation is allowed to fester, the worse it will get," he told AFP."We are talking with a number of producers who are in danger of going out of business because of this man-made disaster."The psychological impact is enormous. People have invested their whole lives in this and to see it going down the gurgler (drain), and the government's lame attempts at compensation, is hard to take."So far the government has put up Aus$33 million ($35 million) in compensation for affected farmers and the animal welfare charity RSPCA said there was no reason cattle should be shot."There is a government and industry f

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