and the poor sheep are still suffering.....

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Police cut through Australian sheep trade protest

 

 

 

2003-09-25 04:02:33 GMT (Reuters)

 

By Belinda Goldsmith

 

CANBERRA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Australian police removed protesters who chained

themselves to fences at a port on Thursday in a bid to stop the loading of a

live cargo of sheep amid an escalating row over more than 50,000 sheep stranded

at sea.

 

The port protest, staged to highlight the plight of the sheep adrift in the

Gulf, ended as police cut through chains to make a path for trucks taking sheep

from a feedlot to a ship, which is due to take them on to the Middle East.

 

A shipload of sheep has been in limbo for over a month after it was rejected by

Saudi Arabia because of what it said was an unacceptably high incidence of

disease. The Saudi importer, aided by Australian officials, is trying to find

them a new market.

 

The ship's owner, Dutch company Vroon B.V., said that 4,256 of the original

cargo of 57,937 sheep had died since the vessel left Australia seven weeks ago

" as a consequence of heat stress while awaiting permission to disembark at

portside " .

 

Animal welfare groups in boats blocked another sheep carrier from docking at

the southern Australian port of Portland on Wednesday, calling for live exports

to be banned and for sheep on the " ship of shame " to be immediately and

humanely put down.

 

The government refuses to stop the live trade.

 

After negotiations with police, the carrier Al Kuwait entered the port early on

Thursday but protesters chained to fences blocked entrances to stop the sheep

being loaded.

 

" We stopped them this morning but police have towed away our vehicles and cut

chains to break through the line and some trucks are now loading the sheep, "

protest organiser Ralph Hahnheuser from Animal Liberation told Reuters.

 

" But our protests over these death ships will continue. "

 

OUTCRY

 

The plight of the sheep on the stranded Cormo Express has sparked a national

outcry. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has begun a

A$100,000 ($68,000) advertising campaign urging Australians to complain to the

government.

 

But the government said it will continue its A$1 billion ($680 million) a year

livestock trade.

 

Prime Minister John Howard said he shared people's distress and every effort

was being made in talks with 10 countries to find a port for the animals, which

have also been rejected by the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan despite being

offered free.

 

" But whilst we should always endeavour to have the most humane conditions, we

do after all breed animals for consumption, " Howard told Melbourne radio

station 3AW.

 

Australia, the world's largest livestock exporter, sends about six million

sheep a year to the Middle East but it has suspended exports to Saudi Arabia,

its largest market, until the impasse over the sheep on the Cormo Express is

resolved.

 

For although Saudi Arabia rejected the shipment saying six percent of the

animals had scabby mouth disease, above an agreed level of five percent,

Australia says only 0.35 percent of the animals have the low grade disease and

is questioning the ban.

 

($1=A$1.47)

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© Reuters 2003

 

 

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