The owners of the so-called “ship of death” stranded at sea with more than 50 000 Australian sheep said the animals’ health was improving on Tuesday, as fears mounted the crisis would permanently damage Australia’s Aus$1-billion livestock export industry.
Vroon BV, the Dutch owner of the MV Cormo Express, said the sheep had been supplied with extra food and water and were benefiting from better ventilation now the vessel was in open seas off the United Arab Emirates.
“They are in relatively good health at the moment, we have brought in extra food supplies, we have brought in extra water, there is maximum ventilation on board,” Vroon spokesperson Cor Radings said.
“We have brought in extra crew to look after the ship, so they’re in a relatively good condition and even gaining weight.”
Vroon last week said almost 4 000 of the sheep had died since the ship left the Australian port of Fremantle on August 5 and Radings would not update the death toll.
“We can stay it has steadied down a bit although in the long term we need an urgent solution to this problem,” he said.
Saudi Arabia refused to admit the sheep five weeks ago on health grounds, alleging unacceptable levels of the disease scabby mouth, which an Australian vet travelling with the sheep disputes.
Since then, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan have also refused to accept the animals, leaving the ship steaming around the Persian Gulf in searing conditions.
Queensland state Primary Industries Minister Henry Palaszczuk said the fallout from the crisis could damage Australia’s lucrative Aus$1,03-billion-a-year livestock export industry.
Palaszczuk said a knee-jerk reaction could cause an animal welfare disaster, threatning future trade.
“We risk animal welfare becoming a non-tariff trade barrier into some existing markets,” he said.
Australia has already suspended livestock exports to Saudi Arabia, its largest market at Aus$195-million a year, because of the Cormo Express row.
The Australian government said Pakistan’s position was disappointing but “it simply means that the sheep’s [Saudi] owner and Australia’s negotiators and diplomats simply have to redouble their efforts”.
A spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said negotiations were also under way with countries outside the Middle East, which he refused to name.
Animal rights activists in Australia have been demanding for weeks that the sheep be humanely put down as they had no commercial value and their destruction was the best of a bad range of options.
But Truss’s spokesperson insisted there was nothing wrong with the sheep.
“The negotiations that the government’s been involved in have been to assure these countries that there are no legitimate quarantine reasons for the Saudi decision and therefore the sheep are free of disease and of very good marketable quality.”
French film star and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot condemned the sheep’s plight as sickening and unbearable. — Sapa-AFP
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