WLD - The industry has a few issues to sort

I'm somewhat surprised that in the Wellard thread of posts that there is no discussion on the shocking footage of cattle being killed with sledgehammers the ABC aired last week. This story was another blow to a industry that has been promising to clean up.

There appears to have been substantial improvements to the way cattle are exported and Wellard appear to be leading the way. the slaughter houses in Vietnam appear not.
Perhaps it's had nothing to do with recent weakness in share price, however I tend to differ in opinion.

I've been a farmer and know that in certain situations animals can be seen to be mistreated when in fact the farmer is acting to promote their good health. Shearing, drenching, marking lambs and dipping to name a few, however this treatment of cattle is just not acceptable and the airplay has likely impacted on sentiment.

On two occasions the live trade has been temporarily closed, this time Barnaby has said there is no need to, that for the most part the new legislation is in place and working to protect the welfare of cattle.

I tend to believing they will sort this out without banning the live cattle trade altogether however this has not yet completely gone away. There is a review over the coming months.

However what many are rightfully arguing is that regardless of the new set of animal welfare regulations namely the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) which is supposedly meant to be enforced by the Australian Live Exporters Council (ALEC) there are some slaughter houses in Vietnam that could not give a rats toenail how they kill the cattle.

Right now there is substantial pressure on governments to act in some decisive way if not to close the trade altogether. This pressure when elections are around the corner are tempting. Animal welfare groups such as Animals Australia and the RSPCA (who again), wish to be included on the board which investigates and regulates the live cattle trade have voices that will influence the government to act in some way.

ALEC made one statement that I makes me wonder why WLD didn't put out a press statement in response to the coverage. the stated

"We've also determined that if any exporter is in deliberate breach of requirements... we will take every step to ensure they do not supply into the market,"

I'm hoping that WLD have no implications in this. as being Australia's largest live cattle exporter it would affect many farmers across the top end. If found to have supplied cattle, perhaps they would cop a decent fine and told to lift their game or face a complete ban.

I'm likely reading far to deeply into this however before I buy a stock that's being belted I like to try to make sure it's not for good reason and has further still to fall.

So current weakness maybe solely to do with a wealthy CEO makes the blunder of buying a place in Italy and owes money back through another company which holds his personal holdings the company his family floats. Not to mention considerable uncontrollable market conditions, dollar value, rising cattle prices, increased rain whereby farmers are restocking instead of unloading cheap cattle due to drought. Unexpected issues with their ships in a industry that cops flack from the public.

One investment firm from London CQS sold out their entire holding of WLD in March, and I'm assuming for a considerable loss having bought the float, why would you do that, when we can see that the current market conditions will improve soon enough? Perhaps they have a limit on holding losses? Who knows.

It's just when I read that Animals Australia was going to release the same footage that they released in March and decided not to that the sceptic in me wondered if something was leaked? I know this is a wild assumption at best, I personally believe that given that WLD's CEO has publicly stated he is all for much higher standards of animal treatment that it's highly unlikely that they will be found to be involved in any way.

I agree with others that this CEO has done himself no favors by his unprofessional actions, I am sure he's good at his job, but not good at running a business that's listed and scrutinized by share investors or worse Chinese buyers.

I would very much like to buy into this company, if it can get past these current hurdles long term it is probably a good investment. This maybe the bottom, however I'm thinking it could be a wise move to wait until this recent Vietnam investigation has blown over and he's has paid the 15 mill owed back.

It would be good to see Wellard put out a press release, or why does not the governing bodies or Wellard themselves supply bolt guns to their buyers to ensure a humane slaughter. Not sure how much they cost, but it might be far better then having this sort of media coverage.

We've all been burnt by little stocks, perhaps for the sake of missing some if it recovers is better than catching the proverbial falling knife. Sellers keep filling orders into the close yesterday when buyers step up...

Good luck to all holders, interested to hear others thoughts.