SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (BNO NEWS) -- The Australian livestock export industry on Monday said it would be suspending the supply of live cattle to three Indonesian slaughterhouses, after a documentary broadcast on national TV showed extreme animal cruelty.

The documentary was broadcast on ABC's 'Four Corners' program, showing footage of cattle being tortured, including eye gouging, tails being broken, as well as throats being slashed in a number of Indonesian slaughterhouses.

"On seeing this footage the industry immediately moved to suspend the supply of cattle to three facilities where cruel practices were identified," Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Chairman Don Heatley said, adding that there was much more work to be done in Indonesia.

"The livestock export industry will be investigating the further facilities identified during Four Corners and will take immediate corrective action, as it did last week when shown footage of four facilities," Don Heatley stated.

Heatley said that MLA and LiveCorp had also sent an extra team of animal welfare experts to Indonesia to intensify their training programs to address poor practices identified in another facility.

Meanwhile, LiveCorp CEO Cameron Hall said the industry is committed to making further improvements in Indonesia, as all of their work in Indonesia was "directed at ensuring the type of actions depicted in this footage never occurs."

"The industry has been working hard to introduce stunning into Indonesian abattoirs for some time, and we are accelerating this work so that stunning is adopted in more facilities by the end of the year," Hall added.

In addition, Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig introduced a moratorium on a type of animal restraint box used in live exports, Australia's ABC News reported, adding that Ludwig had demanded a full briefing before deciding on whether to impose export bans.

Indonesia represents 60 percent of Australia's live cattle exports, and in 2010, trade was worth over $300 million. During the past 10 years, the country's cattle industry, along with government institutions, have invested around $4 million in improving animal treatment in the Southeast Asian country.

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