00:02In a $20 billion beef industry,
00:06AACO is prime cut.
00:08The beef giant sells high-end wagyu,
00:11with a 300-gram steak costing up to $159 overseas.
00:17Its sales pitch, its animals are cared for.
00:20But AACO was involved in two terrible incidents last year
00:24involving cattle dying of thirst.
00:26A source with knowledge of the tragedies
00:29told the ABC almost 140 head had died around Australia Day last year
00:34at an AACO station in Queensland.
00:37A tap was believed to have been accidentally off.
00:40Another mob of AACO animals died in a separate accident elsewhere
00:44that same month after being treated with fly repellent.
00:48It can be revealed that AACO never told the government until March.
00:52That's two months afterwards.
00:54In government documents,
00:55there's scanned information from AACO about what happened.
00:58In fact, the company only told bureaucrats on the same day ABC News
01:03asked AACO about the deaths.
01:06AACO explained they had a group of cattle die
01:09and had worked out it was from a lack of water
01:11and had put processes in place to stop it recurring.
01:15The documents indicate the government, which regulates animal welfare,
01:19was satisfied with AACO's response.
01:22I did explain, seeing as AACO had informed me
01:26and they were adjusting their practices, we would not need to follow up.
01:31The department told the ABC that it takes animal welfare seriously
01:35and was satisfied further probes were not required.
01:38Not all agree.
01:40There's an obvious need for a much closer investigation of the circumstances.
01:45What exactly did happen? Why did it happen?
01:49Has there potentially been a breach of the legislation?
01:52AACO won't publicly detail what went wrong.
01:56Extremely unfortunate and very hard on everyone concerned.
02:01Interstate, regulators have investigated first deaths,
02:04even leading to prosecutions.
02:06But there are questions about oversight.
02:09The major issue is that on the one hand
02:12the department is responsible for promoting
02:15the growth of animal agricultural industries,
02:19while on the other hand it's responsible for ensuring
02:21the welfare of farm animals.
02:24There's a clear conflict of interest.
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