It's hard to watch.

One sheep was dying every two minutes, thousands died overall, and the company in charge of exporting the animals didn’t seem to care.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes published horrific footage showing sheep suffering aboard a livestock export ship bound for the Middle East. Now some groups want the industry to be banned.

So What Exactly Happened?

A navigation officer who had been on multiple live export trips decided to film some footage of the mistreatment of sheep that he was witnessing.

After a long investigation by Animals Australia and 60 Minutes, the footage was released on Sunday — and it was horrific.

It showed sheep packed tightly together — many visibly distressed. Further footage showed dead animals being thrown overboard. Most of the sheep appeared to die due to severe overheating on the ship: the whistleblower behind the leaked footage, Faisal Ullah, told 60 Minutes that some crew members even fainted due to the temperatures.

In one voyage last year, more than 2,000 sheep died. Thousands of sheep also died on a journey the year before that, on the same ship.

Most of the footage came from one particular voyage in August 2017, where Ullah filmed conditions aboard the Emanuel Exports-owned ship Awassi Express.

A heat wave on one voyage last August resulted in unbearable conditions. Ship records show that on the second day, 880 sheep die. That’s one death every two minutes. On the third day another 517 succumb. The heatwave continued for five days. #60Mins. pic.twitter.com/vsWw3r5bvF — 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) April 8, 2018

How Has Everyone Reacted?

In a statement, Emanuel Exports director Nicholas Daws said he was sorry for the incident.

“Animal welfare failures resulting in high mortalities, like the footage we’ve seen from the August 2017 Awassi Express shipment, in which 2,400 sheep died, are heartbreaking for our company and the producers whose livestock we export,” he said.

Animal welfare groups are pissed off.

“For the first time, we have evidence of the shocking conditions on five separate voyages on-board a live animal export ship from Australia,” said RSPCA on Monday morning.

“This is what’s happening to animals routinely, under Australian standards, and under the full control of the Australian Government, live export companies and the live export industry.”

The cruelty that’s been exposed on-board live export ships is harrowing. It cannot continue. The time to end live exports is now: https://t.co/9Hyk0aP1NF #RSPCA #60Mins #liveexport pic.twitter.com/EZFtWRu7hR — RSPCA Australia (@RSPCA) April 8, 2018

On 60 Minutes, animal scientist Clive Phillips said this was an act of deliberate cruelty.

“They’re not given a lot more than the space they physically occupy,” said the University of Queensland professor. “It is deliberate cruelty because the exporters know what animals may face during the voyage.”

Agricultural minister David Littleproud didn’t mince words either, calling the animal treatment “total bullshit”:

“Yesterday I saw footage provided to me by Animals Australia, which quite frankly was very disturbing,” he told media on Friday. “I was absolutely shocked and gutted. If you’re doing the wrong thing you are going to get nailed.”

.@D_LittleproudMP’s new broom will get it’s first sweep this week when the Awassi Express embarks on another voyage from Fremantle to the Middle East. This time it must carry fewer animals and an independent inspector reporting back daily. #60Mins. pic.twitter.com/k3nMgPDq5T — 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) April 8, 2018

Are They Actually Going To Ban Live Exports?

A good bit of recent history to compare this leaked footage to was the government’s ban of live cattle exports to Indonesia back in 2011.

Back then, the ABC broadcast disturbing footage of cattle being abused and mistreated in some Indonesian abattoirs. The government quickly suspended the export trade, which is worth more than $1.4 billion for the Aussie economy each year.

But there was swift backlash to the ban. The then-Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce called it an “overreach”, and said those working in the cattle industry struggled to care for thousands of stranded animals as a result of the sudden policy change.

On Sunday, Australian Maritime Safety Authority inspectors combed the Awassi Express and said that they would not give the ship a certificate to carry livestock until their air flow system was independently verified.

Talking to the ABC, Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council chief executive Simon Westaway suggested the industry could change to give sheep and goats more space while being transported.

He also suggested that official standards could become stricter.

In the current Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock, the Agricultural Department sets clear guiding principles for the treatment of animals, which includes that:

The health and welfare of animals is a primary consideration at all stages of the livestock export chain

All participants throughout the livestock export chain are responsible for the health and welfare of animals in their care

The operation and regulation of the livestock export industry is conducted in a transparent manner

An Emanuel Exports ship, which was going to carry 65,000 sheep and 250 cattle, had planned to set sail on Monday.