Department of Agriculture investigating alleged abuse of Australian sheep in Oman

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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Animals Australia says thousands of sheep from Australia are set to be slaughtered outside the live export rules that are supposed to protect them after uncovering alleged abuses in Oman.

The organisation’s investigators travelled to the Middle Eastern country ahead of Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, this week and documented evidence of sheep being advertised for slaughter outside the approved supply lines.

Animals Australia says it found Australian sheep being slaughtered on concrete slabs with no stunning.Credit: Animals Australia

The Merino sheep had their Australian identification tags removed to prevent their traceability to specific exporters. But Animals Australia said the animals were recognisable as being from Australia due to their breed and online advertisements identified them as such.

The Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS), which was introduced in 2012 following evidence of past abuses of Australian livestock overseas, requires live exporters to ensure their animals are not sold for slaughter in inhumane conditions.

Footage compiled in Oman by Animals Australia, which has campaigned to have the live export industry shut down, shows sheep being crammed into the backs of utes and slaughtered on concrete slabs with no stunning.

It said it found 26 instances of Australian sheep being sold and or advertised to Omanis for private sacrificial slaughter – a breach of the Australian laws that are meant to govern live exports.

Animals Australia alerted the Department of Agriculture, which regulates the industry, to the alleged breaches in May.

The department said in a statement on its website it had started investigating but warned it would take some time.

“To mitigate the risk of further non-compliance, the department has already taken regulatory action requiring exporters to implement stronger control arrangements, extra surveillance and additional reporting,” the statement said.

Footage from Animals Australia shows sheep allegedly from Australia crammed into the back of a ute in Oman.Credit: Animals Australia

A department spokesperson said they could not comment on specifics until the investigation was finished.

Ahead of the Festival of Sacrifice in Oman on Wednesday, Animals Australia last week tried to escalate the matter in the Federal Court. It wanted the Australian exporters responsible for the sheep to be forced to re-purchase them but said it abandoned the action as it could not be resolved in time.

Animals Australia wrote to LSS, the company it believes exported the sheep, and urged it to buy them back as it did when abuses were uncovered in Jordan in 2021.

“We believe that a regulatory direction should not be necessary for such an action to be voluntarily undertaken in good faith, considering the publicly stated commitment of the live sheep trade to animal welfare,” Animals Australia’s Glenys Oogjes wrote.

Animals Australia says it identified an animal being dragged by the leg as having been exported from Fremantle to Oman.Credit: Animals Australia

“Voluntarily doing so would meet the expectations of the Australian public that all things possible should be done to secure these sheep and return them to approved supply chains prior to the Festival of Sacrifice.”

Animals Australia said it did not receive a reply.

Oogjes urged Agriculture Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe to issue an order requiring the live exporter responsible to retrieve the sheep.

The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council said in 2016 that if any Australian animal was found to have been sold outside approved supply lines and for private slaughter, the exporter should be immediately reported to authorities “to enable remedial actions including the recovery of stolen livestock to be undertaken where possible”.

LSS and the exporters’ council were contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.

Lyn White, a former police officer now with Animals Australia, said the alleged breaches showed the industry could not be regulated and must be closed down.

“Any other Australian industry would have been shut down long ago based on such a record of regulatory non-compliance,” she said.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has begun the process of phasing out the industry but any end to the trade will not occur this side of the next election, under government policy. The industry is fighting the ban and the Coalition supports maintaining the live export trade.

The minister declined to comment. Around 78,000 sheep have been exported live from Fremantle in Western Australia to Oman since January last year, with 18,446 sent in May this year alone, according to department data.

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