When I started working on this article, the much-discussed shipment of 56 000 sheep destined for Kuwait had just departed from East London. The live export of sheep from South Africa to Kuwait had until that point been at the centre of a legal struggle between the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) and Al Mawashi, a Kuwaiti-based livestock trading company.
After the NSPCA initially obtained a court order that prohibited the live export of sheep, the court in late August ruled that the export could go ahead, subject to certain conditions. These included that no more than 56 000 sheep could be loaded onto the ship, Al Messilah, and that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) had to monitor the process according to the guidelines pertaining to the transport of animals by sea contained in Chapter 7.2 of the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (OIE) Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
South Africa does not have an official standard regulating the transport of livestock by sea. According to Prof Gareth Bath, chairperson of the Livestock Welfare Coordinating Committee (LWCC), such a standard is urgently required if live exports for slaughter are authorised by the courts, since the OIE guidelines are just that – guidelines.
Establishing an official standard
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Stockfarm.
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This story is from the November 2020 edition of Stockfarm.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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