50,000 Sheep stuck at Sea

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http://www.peta.org/news/NewsItem.asp?id=3073

 

 

PETA TAKES PROTEST OVER SEA-STRANDED SHEEP STRAIGHT TO AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY

 

 

 

Group Demands Intervention to Stop Suffering, End Live-Animal Exports

 

For Immediate Release:

October 17, 2003

 

Contact:

Bruce Friedrich 757-622-7382

 

Washington — Holding signs reading, " Give Them Sanctuary or Give Them Death, "

members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) from various

countries will gather to protest the tragic plight of more than 50,000 sheep who

were shipped to the Middle East from Australia and have been stranded—and

dying—at sea for more than two months, after Saudi Arabia refused to accept them

because of allegations of disease. Thousands of the sheep have died from high

temperatures. PETA will deliver a letter to the Australian ambassador, calling

on him to urge his government to immediately intervene and give the animals

sanctuary or to order that the animals be euthanized. PETA’s plea to the

Australian minister for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry in early September,

asking him to intervene, was ignored.

 

Monday, October 20

Time: 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Place: The Australian Embassy, 1601 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.

 

Of the 57,000 sheep who were loaded onto the ship Cormo Express in Australia in

August, more than 5,000 have died, and they continue to suffer and die in the

blistering Middle Eastern heat. News sources state that the animals are packed

three to a square meter. The Australian government has imposed a temporary ban

on sheep exports to Saudi Arabia, but PETA says that the measure is merely

cosmetic and doesn’t go nearly far enough.

 

This is not the first time that animals have suffered at the hands of the

Australian live-export trade. Every year, millions of Australian sheep are

subjected to the horrors of being shipped vast distances on ships where death,

injury, and illness are everyday realities. A scientific study of one such

shipment from the region found that sheep died from illness, starvation,

pneumonia, dehydration, and trauma and that many died of suffocation after

losing their footing and being smothered by others. Many of the animals became

stuck in accumulated excrement and were unable to move.

 

" The intense suffering of these sheep and the shame it has brought upon

Australia are reason enough to ban live-animal exports permanently, " says PETA Bruce Friedrich. " Live-animal shipments always mean misery for the

animals, but this time, the whole world is watching. "

 

For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site PETA.org.

 

 

 

 

 

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