Dubai: An animal protection group will meet the minister of environment and water this week to discuss a ban on live import of sheep from Australia.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) previously lobbied in the Gulf to highlight the plight of the animals on the weeks-long voyage from Australia to the Middle East, claiming it is not halal.
Dr Edmund Haferbeck will represent PETA later this week in a meeting with Dr Mohammad Saeed Al Kindi, Minister of Environment and Water.
Haferbeck will discuss ending the UAE's live-sheep imports from Australia after apparently PETA presented Al Kindi with visual material of abusive treatment of sheep onboard ships from Australia.
Untrue
The UAE imports approximately 230,000 sheep from Australia each year. The animals are loaded on ships and subjected to weeks-long journeys and exposed to extreme weather conditions.
According to PETA thousands of sheep die of starvation, suffocation, illness and injury. The sheep are confined amid their own accumulated waste, creating ideal conditions for the spread of disease both onboard the ships and after the animals reach their destinations.
However, an investigation carried out by a Australian newspaper, Countryman, demonstrated that the claims are wrong.
"The claim that 'amid their own waste' is an interesting one … Technically it's true but it conjures up images of sheep lying in piles of wet faeces with dags hanging off them. Those images are wrong," wrote Cameron Morse, the editor of Countryman who took part in a voyage.
PETA points out that because of the cruel treatment and filthy conditions which the animals are subjected to, live imports are not halal. As there is no way to humanely ship sheep from Australia to the Middle East, PETA suggests that the UAE accept shipments of chilled sheep meat that satisfy halal conditions.
"We are asking the UAE to put an end to these atrocities by stopping the importation of these gentle animals from Australia," said Nadia Montasser from PETA.
