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9-15-2003 - 9:49 p.m.
Imagine the Sweaters Can you make the best 'free sheep' joke? there will be prizes from Yahoo:News from the Weird 50,000 sheep offered for free Sun Sep 14,11:09 PM ET CANBERRA (Reuters) - A shipload of Australian sheep stranded in the Persian Gulf for almost six weeks after being rejected by Saudi Arabia is being offered for free to stop an escalation of protests by animal rights groups. A spokesman for Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said on Monday negotiations to offload the 57,000 sheep rejected by Saudi Arabia due to a higher-than-accepted rate of the low-grade disease scabby mouth had begun with several countries, but he declined to elaborate. "The (Saudi) owner of the sheep has made the offer to unload the sheep free of cost at any port to which they can be directed, so the government is now basically in the process of following that up through our diplomatic posts," the spokesman said. The move comes amid protests about the welfare of the sheep and calls by animal rights groups to ban Australia's billion dollar a year livestock trade, the biggest in the world. Australia's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said on Friday the sheep on the MV Cormo Express were enduring searing summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and should be immediately put down. Truss said the Australian government was limited in what action it could take. "The ownership of the sheep changes to the Saudi importer once they leave the wharf so they technically are no longer Australian sheep...so our capacity to intervene is limited," Truss told Australian radio on Monday. Saudi officials originally rejected the sheep in the third week of August on the ground that six percent were infected by scabby mouth disease, above an agreed five percent tolerance level. Australia said only 0.35 percent were infected. Following the shipment's rejection, the Australian government suspended livestock exports to Saudi Arabia with trade on hold until officials are satisfied animals can be unloaded safely. The United Arab Emirates also rejected the shipment. Australia is the largest exporter of livestock, shipping six million sheep and one million cattle worth A$1 billion to unrefrigerated meat markets in Asia and the Middle East a year. Saudi Arabia is its largest customer for sheep, taking 1.8 million head in 2002/03. The row over the sheep comes three years after Australian livestock exports to Saudi Arabia resumed following a decade-long ban by Riyadh over cargoes rejected because of disease.
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