Australia said on Friday that 52 000 sheep aboard the so-called ”ship of death” had been accepted by Eritrea, ending an embarrassing two-month saga after Saudi Arabia rejected them on health grounds.
Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the sheep were being presented as a ”gift” to the people of Eritrea, and vowed to ensure the fiasco was never repeated. At 3pm local time (0500 GMT) the ship had docked in Eritrea and the sheep were already being offloaded, he said.
”We’ve managed it the best way we can and we certainly will be doing everything we can to ensure this circumstance never arises again,” Vaile said.
Vaile conceded that negotiations over the sheep had been sensitive.
Australia’s agriculture industry had been deeply concerned by government plans to return the sheep to Australia for slaughter if a taker could not be found, fearing the animals could be carrying exotic diseases contracted during their lengthy voyage.
Animal rights activists had been calling for the animals to be slaughtered at sea, while a series of countries in the region followed the Saudi lead and rejected them, even though independent vets refuted the Saudi claim that they were diseased.
Thousands of the sheep have died, mainly of heat and exhaustion, since they left by Australia in August aboard the Dutch-owned MV Cormo Express. – AFP
