Just as various farmer organisations were stepping up their challenge to the Federal Government to not proceed with its election promise to phase out the live sheep trade, it all went to hell in a hand basket, or should I say, it went to hell in a live animal shipment of sheep and cattle from Australia. 

The shipment was bound for Israel just as the tensions in the Red Sea reached fever pitch. 

The Department of Agriculture had to make the call. It is a condition the exporter accepts, prior to departure, contingency arrangements if product cannot reach its destination. 

So, does the Australian government let the ship proceed and possibly get attacked by the Iran-backed Houthi movement, with the horrific outcome of loss to human and animal life? The answer, no, it was not willing to take that risk.

As I write this column, news is breaking that the US has conducted strikes against the Houthis in what American media outlet, CBS headlines have described as, ‘the US Navy counters Houthi Red Sea attacks as the first major battle at sea for the 21st century’.

The ship, the Israeli owned MV Bahijah may well have made it, as it was asked to abandon its attempt to cross the Red Sea more than a month ago, so it is possible it could have had a safe journey. No one will know. But it must be said, sending live 15,000 sheep and 5000 cattle on a ship into a war zone was too much of a risk.

Livestock Exporters Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton assured Country Today it wasn’t bad news for the hopes of Australian farmers to retain live sheep trade because the animals hadn’t landed anywhere, and the ship had sufficient feed on board to make the home journey with no biosecurity risks. As for the Animal Welfare lobby, it was just what they needed to consolidate their campaign to end the trade once and for all. 

The animals were on board for close to six weeks, the last several anchored off the coast of Fremantle, Western Australia. 

The problem was the animals’ ownership transferred to the exporter once they were loaded on the ship. The exporter tried to find an alternative buyer, but after six weeks on board the ship, running low on feed, it had to make the call. 

The cattle and sheep were unloaded last week and are now apparently in feedlot facilities that pass biosecurity standards, while the exporters either find another buyer and put them back on a ship for a new destination or try to sell the animals for slaughter in Australia.

It is, in my view, the last nail in the coffin of the live sheep export industry from Australia. 

Take the example of the live cattle export trade, which was halted in 2011 by the Gillard government after horrific images of animal cruelty to Australian cattle exported to Indonesia. 

The cattle industry won its legal case in the Federal Court, which ruled the ban was, ‘capricious and unreasonable’. And yet, here we are, more than a decade later, the compensation to the cattle industry is still in dispute.

The entire February 28, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire February 28, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire February 28, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire February 28, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!