Australian sheep shipment sabotaged
Australian animal rights activists sabotaged a shipment of live sheep destined for the Middle East yesterday by claiming they had added pork to the animals' feed.
The campaigners said they were trying to prevent the shipload of 70,000 sheep from leaving Portland in the state of Victoria.
A spokesman for the group Animal Liberation, Ralph Hahnheuser, claimed that activists had secretly added pork to food stocks intended to keep the sheep alive during their voyage to the Gulf, which was scheduled to begin today.
He said the sabotage was intended to block the shipment, because Muslim countries would not accept sheep tainted by pork products. As a result, he said, 'it would be very, very irresponsible for the Australian government and the export company to proceed with this shipment with the knowledge that these animals could well be rejected in the Middle East'.
The group claims to have a video film of the sabotage operation to prove it took place.
The latest protest comes just weeks after Australia faced criticism from around the world for its treatment of a shipment of sheep which were rejected by Saudi Arabia on health grounds.
The sheep onboard the Cormo Express were eventually given to Eritrea in East Africa, after Australia spent millions buying them back and providing extra feed to keep them alive.
The alleged sabotage was condemned as 'appalling' by Agriculture Minister Warren Truss who said police and quarantine officers were investigating.
The head of the Victorian Farmers' Federation, Simon Ramsay, said he was 'absolutely steaming' with anger at the claims and called for the activists to be prosecuted. He said no evidence had yet been found that the sheep's food supply had been contaminated, but warned that negative publicity could do great harm to the Australian live export trade.
