Footage allegedly reveals 'sickening' abuse at country saleyard

Sheep Advocate Australia has used whistleblower footage to detail alleged animal welfare breaches at the Bendigo Livestock Exchange.

The videos, seen by the ABC, allegedly show a person punching a sheep, as well as dying and dead animals being ignored.

Agriculture Victoria has confirmed it is investigating the 81 formal complaints made by the welfare group.

Warning: This article contains images of animal cruelty that may distress some readers.

Agriculture Victoria is investigating allegations of animal cruelty at the Bendigo Livestock Exchange after a whistleblower's claims sparked a probe by animal welfare advocates.

Footage filmed by the whistleblower from November last year, and seen by the ABC, appears to show sheep dying in pens, unmuzzled dogs being used and injured animals being transported for sale.

Welfare group Sheep Advocate Australia (SAA) has compiled the footage into a 40-page report that it has lodged, along with 81 official complaints, with Agriculture Victoria about alleged breaches of saleyards and livestock transport laws and animal welfare regulations.

While reserving judgement on whether rules had been breached, two animal welfare experts have described the video as "not a good look" for the Victorian industry.

The experts said while some of the footage was hard to watch, it was not clear that rules and laws had been broken.

The pair agreed that while the video of a sheep being euthanased looked bad, they were happy with the placement of the captive bolt-action firearm against the sheep's head.

They said they would have liked to have seen a "five-finger head check" performed on the sheep to check whether it was alive or dead.

SAA claimed it counted more than 233 dead sheep over 20 sale days between November and May this year at the Bendigo yards.

It said it counted an average of 19 dead sheep on each sale day the whistleblower attended.

Agriculture Victoria said it was reviewing the complaints and would consider a range of mitigating and aggravating factors.

The footage allegedly shows dying or dead sheep being ignored, lambs being separated from their mothers, very young lambs up for sale, and a lack of ear tags or the wrong tags being used.

SAA founder Gary Hall said the investigation showed serious weaknesses in Victoria's fit-to-load and livestock welfare framework.

The fit-to-load description refers to the condition animals should be in before they are transported to the saleyard.

"Why did those animals die if they were fit to load in the first place?" Mr Hall asked.

Mr Hall said the government needed to introduce new laws to punish farmers who took animals that weren't fit to load to a saleyard.

"And then councils should be responsible for lodging a complaint when an animal arrives on-site that wasn't fit to load," he said.

Agriculture Victoria said the department limited any comment in order to not jeopardise the outcome of any investigation.

University of Melbourne veterinary school academics Carolina Hess and Daniel Brookes reviewed the footage for the ABC.

Ms Hess said improving fit-to-load protocols was just one part of the requisite solution.

"It will be hard to just improve one point in the chain and expect that the whole problem is going to be improved," she said.

"I think we have to tackle this from different points and identify where the challenges arise."

Ms Hess said rules and guidelines mattered, but the real test was how they were monitored and implemented, and whether staff were adequately educated and trained.

Mr Brookes said the footage showed that veterinarians were needed at the farm gate before animals were taken to the saleyards.

"The biggest thing is improving training," he said.

"Whether that be training those who are handling stock [or] more veterinarians working with farmers to help them and educate them on what ailments are unfit to load and to make sure their livestock are in good condition before transport and sale."

The City of Greater Bendigo owns and runs the saleyards in Huntly, on the northern outskirts of Bendigo.

Council figures show more than one million sheep and lambs pass through the yards each year, contributing $190 million to the state's economy.

In a statement, council chief executive Andrew Cooney said he was reviewing the allegations.

"Animal welfare is something the city takes very seriously, and appropriate inquiries are being undertaken to establish the relevant facts," he said.

"As this process is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to speculate on the matter."

The SAA report into the Bendigo Livestock Exchange also raised the previously publicised failure to provide shelter to livestock, which resulted in the Victorian government promising $1.7 million in this year's budget to build the first phase of a roof by December.

The group said the saleyards needed a "cultural change" regarding animal welfare.

The footage allegedly also showed a lamb SAA suspected may have been too young for sale being auctioned, and people walking past or standing over animals that were severely injured, dying or dead in a pen.

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell said the report showed a dire need for an independent body to investigate allegations of animal cruelty in the state.

"I'm not surprised. We know that there are ongoing compliance issues at saleyards across the state, and this is just another example of it occurring.

"It should not be the case that the department responsible for the promotion of agriculture is also the department for investigating breaches and evidence like this.

The Victorian Greens have also received the report from SAA but declined to comment.