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Reports Australian sheep buried alive in Pakistan
Story by ABC News | Added 27-09-2012 | Source | Leave a Comment
Thousands of Australian sheep sent to Pakistan have been slaughtered, with some buried alive and others clubbed to death, according to local media reports.
Karachi-based PK Meat and Food Company bought the sheep after authorities in Bahrain rejected the shipment on the grounds the animals were infected.

It has confirmed at least 10,000 sheep out of the total shipment of 20,468 have been slaughtered in an "unacceptable" an un-Islamic manner by local authorities Karachi.

The International News in Pakistan says video footage of the slaughter shows the sheep lying in trenches - some had their throats slit, others were clubbed to death. Some animals can be seen still wriggling, soon to buried alive.

Wellard Rural Exports, the Australian company that exported the sheep to Pakistan, says its stockmen were forced to leave its export partner's accredited abattoir by local police, and local livestock department officials then undertook a cull.

It says the slaughter was inconsistent with its animal welfare ethos and its export partner has successfully applied for a court order to prevent the cull from continuing.

Wellard managing director, Stephen Meerwald, is quoted in the International News report as saying he has not eaten or slept since seeing the "gruesome" footage.

"Regardless of whether they were healthy or not, the way they were killed or buried alive is neither humane, nor Islamic," he said.
"The Federal Government had directed the Sindh government to dispose of the sheep in a 'merciful and Islamic manner', but that was not how it got rid of them."

A court order is now in place to prevent the remaining sheep from being killed.

Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig has been made aware of the latest reports and his staff are trying to confirm the veracity of the information.

The International News report has quoted a local expert as saying that there could be serious problems for Pakistan's livestock industry if animal rights activists discovered what happened to the sheep.

"I can bet on one thing that if the Australians find out how the sheep were killed - the stabbing, the clubbing and the burying alive - they will definitely ban animal exports to Pakistan," the un-named source is quoted as saying.

In a statement released on Monday, the Australian Department of Agriculture alluded to concerns about the treatment of the sheep.

"The Department and the Australian High Commission in Pakistan are working to confirm information relating to the culling and to resolve any issues," it said.

The Australian Government says both it and the exporter were confident that the animals were healthy, despite local reports that some were affected by anthrax.

The Department said it was impossible that the sheep were exposed to anthrax while in Australia, because they would have been dead within 48 hours.



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