Sheep sail to island pasture

2003-10-17 12:31

Sydney - A shipload of 50 000 Australian sheep which has been stranded in the Middle East for 70 days because no country would take the animals finally headed back to Australia on Friday.

Prime Minister John Howard confirmed the Dutch-registered MV Cormo Express left Kuwait overnight for Australia's Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, where he said the sheep would undergo a "very, very elaborate and careful quarantine inspection."

Animal rights groups around the world have taken up the cause of the sheep since they were rejected six weeks ago by Saudi Arabia on the grounds that too many of the animals were diseased - a claim Australia disputes.

Australia deployed all its diplomatic muscle in a bid to find another country that would take the sheep for free, even sending its trade minister to the Middle East this week.

Heat stress

But about 30 nations refused the offer, apparently due to concerns over the animals' health. More than five thousand of the sheep have died from heat stress during their time at sea.

While Australia insists the animals are healthy, the government has come under fierce pressure from domestic farming interests not to bring them home for fear they may have contracted exotic diseases during their long sea voyage that could ravage this island nation's huge livestock industry.

The health fears led the government to order the Cormo Express to the remote Cocos Islands rather than a port on the Australian mainland.

Howard acknowledged concerns the sheep could be a danger to Australia's livestock, but said his government was left with no choice but to bring them home.

Damned if you do?

"I understand that people are nervous, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't," he said.

"But what would be required to slaughter them at sea would not only be graphic but also raise very serious environmental considerations and it would take a very long time, in fact 40 to 50 days," he said.

"And on top of that it could be a breach of one of our international treaty obligations."

Howard said he did not have the current cost of the operation but it would "obviously be costing us quite a lot of money."

The World Animal Health Organisation has begun a quarantine risk assessment of the sheep and a ship was being loaded with provisions to resupply the Cormo Express with Australian feed and water once it gets to the Cocos Islands - a voyage expected to take about 10 days.

- AFP