Australia has rolled back a ban on exporting sheep to the Middle East during the hottest months of the year in a move animal rights groups say ignores scientific recommendations introduced to protect animal welfare.
The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment announced adjustments to the summer export ban this week, based on climatological data that it said resulted in an increased risk of heat stress in the Persian Gulf in May, and reduced risk of heat stress for sheep travelling through the Red Sea in early June.
The live export of sheep to most ports in the Middle East is banned from 1 June to 14 September.
But Australian exporters will be allowed to take sheep through the Red Sea to Israel from 1 to 14 June.
The ban on exporting to some Persian Gulf destinations, including Qatar but not the major live export ports of Oman and Kuwait, will begin a week early on 22 May.
Dr Jed Goodfellow from the Australian Alliance for Animals said the changes were contrary to the findings of a heat stress review commissioned by the government, and could result in sheep deaths.
The McCarthy review, commissioned after whistleblower footage showing sheep panting and experiencing heat stress during a deadly voyage on the Awassi Express in August 2017, identified heat stress as a risk on all shipments occurring between May and October.
The summer export ban, first introduced in 2019, has only ever run from June to September, to allow Australia’s two remaining live sheep exporters access to key global markets.
Goodfellow said allowing sheep to be exported through the Red Sea in June would push them to their “biological limit” and risked a significant mortality event.
“You get one adverse weather event, temperatures higher than expected, and basically half of the sheep on the ship could die,” he said.
Goodfellow said the adjustment to the summer ban, which followed lobbying from exporters, showed that the trade would not be able to exist if all the scientific advice around reducing heat stress was followed.
“It just shows the fact that the trade is fundamentally incompatible with acceptable welfare standards,” he said. “The business model is based on a degree of animal suffering, because if you act on the science and in accordance with animal welfare the trade becomes unviable very very quickly.”
The agriculture department in February announced it would be conducting “additional stakeholder engagement” on its review of live sheep exports during the Middle Eastern summer, which is expected to be completed by the end of June. It also said it was funding ongoing research by LiveCorp and the export industry, which “will further ascertain and align sheep physiological and behavioural changes observed during a voyage with other data”.
“This will include additional onboard data collection including using automated rumen data loggers to continuously measure sheep core body temperature,” it said.
The chief executive of RSPCA Australia, Richard Mussell, said there was no need to conduct additional research.
“All the data and evidence is already there – it’s just being dismissed,” he said. “Live export does not enable the most basic of animal welfare needs.”
Mussell said the decision to wind back part of the summer ban was “deeply concerning”.
“It’s also very worrying that these regulations have been put in place now, on the eve of a federal election being called – when parliament may not sit again for months and so may not have the chance to scrutinise these last-minute changes,” he said.
Animals Australia director Lyn White said the three-month ban was “already grossly inadequate” and reducing it would “increase the perils sheep will face”.
Greens senator, Mehreen Faruqi, said it was concerning that the change had been made without parliamentary oversight.
“The Senate has been denied the opportunity to do its job in scrutinising these changes and considering whether to disallow them before they come into effect,” she said.
