Live sheep exports delayed to prepare emergency plan

By LIAM DANN

Live sheep exports from New Zealand have been suspended until contingency plans are prepared to avoid the animal welfare storm that has followed Australia's latest shipment to the Middle East.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has put on hold an application to send 65,000 live sheep to Saudi Arabia. It is only the second application MAF has received this year. A shipment of 43,000 sheep was delivered in April.

MAF spokeswoman Philippa White refused to name the company involved in the latest application.

She said shipments had been postponed until the company could give assurances that the sheep would be unloaded safely and promptly.

That assurance would need to include plans for an alternative destination in case the sheep faced a situation similar to that of those on Australia's Cormo Express.

That ship was denied permission to unload its cargo of 57,000 sheep in Saudi Arabia after they were found to have unacceptably high levels of the disease scabby mouth.

The vessel has been stranded at sea for five weeks while attempts are made to find an alternative destination. The situation has raised a storm of protest from animal welfare groups.

White said the New Zealand shipment would probably be cleared to go within the next few weeks.

New Zealand no longer exports large volumes of live sheep.

In 1996 eight shipments went to the Middle East. Last year there was just one shipment of 32,000 sheep.

Numbers dropped dramatically in 1997 after a regulation change banning the live export of lambs made the practice less economically viable.