Australia may slaughter or dump 50,000 unwanted sheep
Australia may slaughter 57,000 sheep or dump then on an island if it fails to find a buyer this week for the animals, which have been stranded for two months on a ship in the Gulf.
The sheep had been headed for Saudi Arabia on the Dutch ship Cormo Express in August as part of Australia’s lucrative live sheep trade with some Middle East countries.
But the Saudi government refused to let it dock, claiming 6% of the 57,000 animals were infected with a contagious, nonfatal disease called scabby mouth. The Saudi government allows an infection rate of 5%.
Thousands of the animals have been dying in the sweltering heat as attempts have failed to find another country to buy them.
Under pressure from animal rights groups, the Australian government bought the sheep from their Saudi importer and has been trying to find a country willing to accept them.
The ship was docked in Kuwait today but was due to sail tomorrow.
Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss told Parliament in Canberra today that an independent report showing the animals were fit for human consumption had been circulated to 25 countries in the region.
But talks to sell the sheep had so far failed, he said.
“In the event that something cannot be achieved in that regard, we are naturally working on the fallback options of either slaughter somewhere else in the region or, alternatively, returning to Australia under very strict quarantine,” he said.
The government was also looking at whether the sheep could be left on two remote Australian territories in the Indian Ocean – Christmas Island or the Cocos Islands – said Territories Minister . Ian Campbell.
But that solution posed “logistical problems,” he said.
Australia exports £75 million worth of live animals each year, mostly to countries that require livestock slaughtered according to Islamic standards.
