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Sheep `ship of death' debacle leads to inquiry

Australia moved yesterday to repair some of the damage caused by the "ship of death" fiasco over more than 50,000 stranded sheep, after they finally found a taker in distant Eritrea.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss announced the members of a Senate inquiry into the livestock trade, which is to begin hearing statements today.

The inquiry is to be headed by former president of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, John Keniry, who will be joined by top quarantine and veterinary officials.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile also announced he would tour the Middle East in the coming weeks to meet trade partners and discuss the livestock trade.

"I'm going to undertake to go and meet with a lot of our clients in the region later on in the year. This is a very important trade," Vaile told commercial television.

"Our relationship with our major clients in the region is still very good and we've had a very, very good record with our live export trade out of Australia."

Australia earns around A$1 billion (US$700 million) a year from the live export trade, which many animal welfare activists want banned.

Australia's top quarantine official Mike Taylor and chief vet Gardner Murray will be among those giving evidence to the inquiry, which is is to report to Truss by the end of the year.

It will examine codes of practice, supervision and also look specifically at why almost 10 percent of the sheep on the MV Cormo Express died. It will also examine the Saudi Arabian market for which the sheep were destined.

A costly two-month struggle to find a taker for the sheep ended on Friday when Canberra announced the sheep were already being unloaded in Eritrea, which had taken them as a gift.

The Dutch-owned livestock carrier MV Cormo Express had been floating around the Middle East for two months after Saudi Arabia refused to allow the sheep to land in Jeddah in August, claiming they were diseased.

Independent veterinarians backed up Australia's claims that there was nothing wrong with the animals, but a whole string of countries in the region followed the Saudi lead and refused to take them.
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