Ship blocked after video emerges of dying sheep in overcrowded pens
A ship due to carry more than 50,000 sheep to the Middle East has been blocked from leaving Australia after video emerged of distressed animals dying and struggling to breathe in filthy conditions.
Australia’s live animal export trade, worth more than A$800 million (Dh2.24 billion) annually, has been under scrutiny in recent years after video shot at offshore abattoirs showed cattle being mistreated.
The latest images, taken on the Panamanian-flagged livestock carrier Awassi Express, showed sheep packed into small, stifling pens, covered in or surrounded by excrement. Many were dead.
The footage, taken over five voyages last year to Qatar, Kuwait and Oman from Australian ports, was released by activist group Animals Australia.
“They just died in front of us,” Faisal Ullah, a graduate from Pakistan’s Marine Academy who took the videos, told Australia’s Channel Nine TV. “Just one by one. I mean, you are just putting live animals into the oven.”
Channel Nine said the sheep were stacked into 10 floors in the ship and forced to stand for three weeks, often in extreme heat.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said yesterday that thousands of sheep died.
The same ship, which was due to depart from Fremantle in Western Australia this week for Qatar and Kuwait, was blocked from leaving by the authority after an inspection “raised some concerns about air flow over some pens”.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said yesterday that he had held constructive talks with the industry and welfare groups to strengthen standards in livestock trade.
Mr Littleproud ruled out a ban but said he was taking other measures, such as opening a whistleblower hotline this week, so people could “call out bad behaviour”.
“It is important we get integrity into the live system and those people doing wrong need to be held to account,” he says. Emanuel Exports, which uses
Awassi Express, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that it had made changes to welfare requirements, such as lower loading volumes and having a government observer on board its ships.
Australia suspended live shipments to Egypt for several months in 2013 after abattoir footage showed mistreatment of cattle. Trade to Indonesia was also temporary halted in 2011 owing to cruelty concerns.