In the meantime, the sheep remained on board, standing in their own faeces, enduring temperatures of around 40ºC, poor food and limited supplies of water. As if this wasn’t enough, reprovisioning for the animals in Kuwait was delayed on October 6 when a fire broke out destroying two tonnes of feed. It wasn’t until October 24 that the Cormo sheep finally found a destination. After some 30 countries had rejected the sheep, the Australian Government cynically offered the sick and dying cargo as a ‘gift’ to famine-stricken Eritrea. It took a starving people to accept the sheep that had become so diseased that no one wanted them. When the cargo was finally unloaded in Massawa, workers had to cover their noses and mouths to avoid the stench from what the Australian media had by now dubbed the ‘Ship of Death’. Around 5,800 sheep had died on the voyage.
During the eleven weeks the Cormo was at sea, outrage at the Government’s callous attitude grew among the Australian people. And it wasn’t just the animal welfare groups who were angered – ordinary people, farmers, workers in the meat industry all voiced their anger and contempt as the story was covered by television, magazines and newspapers. As the horrific story was relayed globally, people around the world began to revise their opinion of a country that had long had the reputation of being fair-minded and compassionate – as far as humane standards are concerned, the Australian Government and its cruel live export trade had together turned this lovely land into a Third World nation.
Predictably the Australian Government did all it could to play down the disaster. Australian Agriculture Minister issued a press release on 22 September 2003 maintaining that the sheep were in good health, quoting the veterinary officer on the Cormo as saying: ‘The sheep consignment is maintaining its excellent condition and there are no health issues affecting the sheep. It is estimated that the entire sheep consignment has gained 2kg to 3kg per head in body weight during the voyage.’ However, how much credence should we give this comment, given the testimony of vet Dr Tony Hill on the 60 Minutes programme about Australian live export? This begs the question of how they can possibly tell the weight of these sheep when they are packed into pens on a ship – unless, of course they are including the ever-increasing weight of faeces that the animals are standing in.
Furthermore, a few days later, when Australia was considering bringing the animals back to Fremantle, there was grave concern about a quarantine risk from these ‘healthy’ sheep. Former chief vet of Australia, Bill Gee, described the proposal as ‘absolute madness’ as the sheep would have been exposed to diseases such as ‘screw worm fly, Rift Valley fever and blue tongue.’ ABC online quoted him on 3 October as saying, ‘To have those sheep come back into an Australian point-port is absolutely dicing with death, because as soon as they get into a port, they’re likely to be attacked by Australian insects which would then have the chance of transmitting really serious diseases to Australian livestock.’
The Cormo sheep are now long dead, but their suffering highlighted a trade that is impractical, inefficient, obscene and immoral.