{"id":14886,"date":"2024-01-31T12:47:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T12:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/thousands-of-sheep-and-cattle-stranded-at-sea-after-red-sea-crisis-turn-back\/"},"modified":"2024-01-31T12:47:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T12:47:40","slug":"thousands-of-sheep-and-cattle-stranded-at-sea-after-red-sea-crisis-turn-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/thousands-of-sheep-and-cattle-stranded-at-sea-after-red-sea-crisis-turn-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of sheep and cattle stranded at sea after Red Sea crisis turn back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Concern is mounting for thousands of sheep and cattle stranded off the coast of Australia\u00a0after authorities ordered the Israeli-owned ship transporting the live cargo to turn around over fears it could be targeted by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. <\/p>\n

More than 16,000 animals are aboard the MV Bahijah anchored off Western Australia, where sweltering heat is\u00a0adding to pressure on the Australian government to decide whether to re-export the live cargo or allow the vessel back to dock following more than three weeks at sea. <\/p>\n

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said on Wednesday\u00a0it was considering a request from the exporter to offload some of the animals, before re-exporting the remainder. <\/p>\n

Animal welfare advocates say they should be offloaded as a matter of urgency. <\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s live export trade has long been a point of friction between the industry and those who say it prioritizes revenue over animal welfare. <\/p>\n

The Australian government has pledged to end the live export of sheep but has yet to give a timetable about when that will happen. <\/p>\n

A long journey<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0MV Bahijah left the port of Fremantle in Western Australia on January 5\u00a0for the Middle East, according to a statement from the Australian government. <\/p>\n

A crisis has enveloped the region\u2019s vital Red Sea shipping lane in recent weeks, as Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attack commercial vessels in what they say is retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Fifteen days into the ship\u2019s voyage, a\u00a0request to divert the vessel around Africa, as other ships have done to evade Houthi missiles and drones, was rejected.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cTo ensure the health and welfare of the livestock on the MV Bahijah, the department directed the exporter that the consignment be immediately returned to Australia,\u201d said a government statement\u00a0on January 20. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the government said it was working with the exporter on a plan, but by Wednesday, as summer temperatures rose, no decision had been made. <\/p>\n

John Hassell, president of the\u00a0Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers), which represents the state\u2019s agricultural industry, said a decision should have been made days ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would have thought the department should have had its stuff sorted out well before it got here,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the animals are in good nick, if there\u2019s no disease if there\u2019s plenty of space, we\u2019ll (resupply the ship) and turn it away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should have been gone by now.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable that the sheep are in the shade sitting down, chewing their cud in the warm parts of the day and eating when it\u2019s cooler, like they do on the farm,\u201d Hassell said. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
An image of sheep aboard the MV Bahijah taken said to have been taken a few days ago after the ship\u2019s arrival back in Australia.<\/span> <\/div>\n

WAFarmers<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cGrave\u201d concerns<\/h2>\n

However, Suzanne Fowler, Chief Science Officer with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), said it\u2019s a matter of urgency that all animals are offloaded. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese animals have now been on board the ship for a minimum of 26 days. The temperature in Perth is starting to touch 40 degrees (102 Fahrenheit) today,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence tells us that the welfare of the animals is only going to get worse and worse over the coming days due to the amount of time they\u2019ve spent on the ship. So, it\u2019s very urgent and we couldn\u2019t be more gravely concerned.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hassell, from WAFarmers, said offloading the animals would only cause them more stress. <\/p>\n

If allowed to disembark, the animals would be governed by Australia\u2019s strict biosecurity system, which is designed to assure importing countries that the country\u2019s livestock is disease-free. <\/p>\n

Mark Harvey-Sutton, CEO of the Australian Livestock Exporters\u2019 Council, said any\u00a0animals taken off the boat would be placed into quarantine before being re-exported or killed in an Australian abattoir. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey would essentially be in quarantine indefinitely until a market was found for them. There\u2019s no two weeks quarantine and you\u2019re out sort of thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hassell said the only reason some animals would be offloaded would be to create space for the return journey. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the animals have gotten bigger and fatter on the trip over and require more space, then that\u2019s why they\u2019ll be offloaded,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The RSPCA has requested permission for an independent veterinarian to board the ship to assess the animals. <\/p>\n

Fowler said while the livestock may not be showing signs of illness now, it\u2019s only a\u00a0matter of time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe stress of the animals is only going to yield in the coming days and that sense of fatigue where they can\u2019t cope anymore, will only worsen,\u201d she said.\u00a0A lot of these diseases you won\u2019t see until it\u2019s too late.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concern is mounting for thousands of sheep and cattle stranded off the coast of Australia\u00a0after authorities ordered the Israeli-owned ship transporting the live cargo to turn around over fears it could be targeted by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. More than 16,000 animals are aboard the MV Bahijah anchored off Western Australia, where sweltering <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}