New Australian animal cruelty row in sheep trade to Egypt

SYDNEY: The Australian government said on Tuesday it would not ban live sheep exports to Egypt despite new evidence of what it called appalling treatment in that country, but would take the issue up with Egyptian authorities. Animal rights group Animals Australia has given Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran video evidence which it says shows Australian sheep sent to Egypt being tied with rope or wire and put in cars to be driven to homes and killed. That s an underestimate [of the cruelty], Animals Australia head Glenys Ooogjes told Reuters on Tuesday. The video adds to a long-running controversy over Australian exports of live cattle and sheep. The issue made world headlines in 2003, when more than 50,000 Australian sheep on board the Cormo Express, dubbed the ship of shame , wandered Middle Eastern waters for three months after the animals were rejected by Saudi Arabia and more than 30 other countries. The latest evidence was gathered from a first shipment of Australian live sheep after a ban on exports to the Egypt by the Australian government in 2006 because of earlier mistreatment. The Australian government suspended live animal exports to Egypt in February last year after video evidence was shown on Australian television of what Animals Australia described as barbaric treatment of cattle and sheep. The trade was resumed last October after Egypt signed two memorandums of understanding which provided assurances that it would protect the health and welfare of Australian livestock. Australia was working with Egyptian authorities to better educate the population on how to humanely handle sheep, McGauran said on Tuesday, after viewing video evidence of mistreatment of sheep in the first new shipment. There are some appalling instances of sheep handling, no doubt about it at all, McGauran, who comes from a farming family, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Tuesday. It is upsetting, those appalling acts of animal handling of course are distressing for Australian farmers especially, but a ban on livestock exports would remove any incentive for Egypt to work with Australia to improve animal handling standards. Someone else would take our place. Australia is in the best position to better educate the Egyptians on these issues. Australia s live trade was worth around $569 million in 2006, when 4.2 million live sheep and 637,000 live cattle were shipped, mainly to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Total exports have stood at around $781.3 million in previous years. Egypt has been a large importer of Australian sheep, taking almost 350,000 head of Australian live sheep in 2000, 6.5 percent of the total of 5.4 million in that year. Exports to Egypt have fallen considerably before the resumption of trade in October. Animals Australia, which wants Australian livestock exports banned, said practices in offshore ports would be illegal in Australia. Australia is the largest exporter of livestock in the world.