Controversial shipment of livestock reaches Israel from Australia after months-long odyssey
Animal rights groups slam both governments for allowing the consignment of some 14,000 sheep and calves to sail after original journey was diverted by Houthi missile attacks
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
More than 14,000 animals destined for fattening and slaughter in Israel arrived at Haifa Port on Saturday after more than three months in transit — in one of the longest-ever such shipments from Australia — after the journey was diverted by Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Australian and Israeli animal rights groups denounced the shipment and the delays it endured and called on the government to end the transport of live animals, particularly with the added restrictions and travel time imposed by the war and attacks from the Iran-based terror group.
There was no immediate information on the condition of the animals upon arrival in Israel, although dozens died in the first stage of the journey.
Three Israeli groups, Israel Against Live Shipments, Animals Now and Let the Animals Live, said in a joint statement that the live shipment industry had “broken another record for cruelty, under the supervisory eye of the Agriculture Ministry, which is supposed to be responsible for animal protection.”
The ministry should have frozen such shipments during the ongoing war, the statement said, adding that the time had come for the Knesset to end the shipments.
The Australian Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals called their ordeal “one of the most shameful episodes in Australian live export history.”
Ordered by the Israeli meat company Bassem Dabbah Shipping, 14,000 lambs and 2,000 calves set sail from the Australian port of Freemantle on January 5, aboard the MV Bahijah.
According to The Maritime Executive, the ship has seven decks, four enclosed and three open, and is designed to transport up to roughly 8,000 head of livestock.
On January 16, the vessel was diverted from its route through the Red Sea for fear of missile attack by Iran-backed Houthis and was ordered to return to Australia.
It docked back in Western Australia on February 14 and offloaded the livestock to various feedlots amid concerns for their fate during a heatwave and despite local quarantine laws.
Around 13,700 of the sheep and 550 of the cattle were then reloaded onto the vessel and set sail again on 3 March despite an original Australian decision to halt the shipment.
Rebecca Tapp, a spokesperson for the Australian Stop Live Exports, said, “There were over 80 reported deaths, before the animals that were deemed most likely to survive another voyage were exposed to 35 more days at sea, around the treacherous Cape of Good Hope.”
RSPCA Australia Chief Science Officer Suzie Fowler said, “The live export trade has a long and shameful history of extreme animal suffering, yet the MV Bahijah saga brought the horrors of the live sheep export industry into Australia’s backyard.”
Saying that the saga had underlined the “lack of transparency, the inability of our regulations to protect animals, and the profit-at-all-costs approach, that are endemic to live animal export,” Fowler called on the Australian Federal Government to pass a date for ending live shipments to fulfil an election promise.
In November 2018, the Knesset passed in a preliminary reading a bill that would gradually reduce livestock numbers being imported into Israel and to stop them completely within three years, moving entirely to the import of chilled meat. However, the legislation never went further.
