PERTH, Australia — The Australian government said Monday that it would investigate the mistreatment of animals after video recently emerged showing thousands of sheep dying from heat stress on board a ship traveling to the Middle East.

David Littleproud, the agriculture minister, said he was “shocked and gutted” by the footage and promised that those responsible would be punished.

The video was apparently taken in August 2017 on a converted car carrier owned by Emanuel Exports, a shipping company based in Perth. The ship, the Awassi Express, was sailing from Fremantle, a port in Western Australia, to Doha, Qatar.

The footage, which was broadcast Sunday on Australia’s “60 Minutes” news program, shows the sheep dying on the decks while rotting corpses are being tossed overboard. More than 2,400 sheep died of heat stress, according to the report.