Jenny Moxham
April 2018
Recently aired video showed gentle sheep gasping for oxygen, noses flaring and smothered in faeces, unable to lie down to rest or even reach food or water.Newborn lambs were trampled to death.
Please sign: END SHEEP TERROR NOW
Images are from Animals Australia's video WHAT HAPPENS ON LIVE EXPORT SHIPS?
Can you imagine how you'd feel if you were imprisoned inside a ship where
the temperature was steadily rising? And rising and rising and rising. Can
you imagine how you'd feel being cooked alive?
Well, this week it was revealed that, in August 2017, 2,400 Australian sheep
died in this horrific manner. They were quite literally cooked alive.
The vessel on which they were incarcerated - the Awassi Express - had
departed from Western Australia on August 1st 2017 with 63,804 sheep on
board. It was bound for the Middle East where August temperatures can reach
41 degrees Celsius. Fremantle - their port of departure - has an average
August temperature of around 19 degrees Celsius.
One cannot even begin to imagine the suffering that these pitiful animals
would have endured before they finally succumbed to death. As heat
stress took hold, they would have been unable to eat or drink and eventually
they would have been too weak to even stand. Every breath would have been a
struggle and the sheep would have fought frantically to survive. The heat
would have been vastly increased by the fact that the ship was almost fully
enclosed and the sheep were tightly packed together.
On Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program on April 8th we saw footage
taken by Faisal Ullah - a graduate of Pakistan's Marine Academy and trainee
navigation officer aboard the Awassi Express.
It showed gentle sheepgasping for oxygen, noses flaring and smothered in
faeces, unable to lie down to rest or even reach food or water. Newborn lambs
were trampled to death.
But, that fateful voyage in August was certainly not the first timethere
had been mass deaths due to heat stress on live export vessels. In 2013 more
than 4,000 sheep were cooked alive on the Bader 111. This ship was likewise
bound for the Middle East at a time of the year when temperatures were
scorching.
But these deaths, that make it to the news, are not the only deaths
that occur on these ships. It is deemed perfectly acceptable for 2 % of
sheep to die on these relatively short voyages. So if 1,260 sheep had died
on this voyageit would have been considered perfectly OK.
Sheep die at sea for many reasons. They die from illness, heat stress,
injury and starvation. Unaccustomed to pellets, many fail to recognize them
as food.
But the journey, of course, is only the start of the animals’ suffering.
What happens to those who survive the grueling sea voyage is a living
nightmare. The vast majoritydie in terror and pain while fully conscious.
Trussed and tied, these inoffensive, bewildered and terrified Australian
animalshave their throats sawn open and slowly choke to death on their own
blood.
If someone in Australia treated a dog or cat this way it would be regarded
-and punished - as and animal cruelty offense. Yet our government - by
allowing, supporting and encouraging live export - is subjecting millions of
animals to his unimaginable suffering andgetting away scot-free.
Governments are elected to do the will of the people and the majority of
Australians want live export banned so isn't it time we demanded our elected
leaders do our will and end this hideously cruel trade?
Mahatma Ghandi famouslysaid, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Surely it's time our government displayed some morals by banning live export and putting an end to oneof the darkest chapters in our history.