Footage shows crew trying to scoop up heavily decayed remains of sheep that died from heat stress and dump them overboard

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Maritime Union of Australia has joined calls for a temporary suspension of the live export trade after the release of more whistleblower footage showed crew on live export ships struggling to clean up the heavily decayed carcasses of sheep that had died from heat stress.

The footage was filmed on the Panama-flagged Awassi Express by whistleblower Faisal Ullah, who earlier released footage of five voyages stocked by Australian company Emanuel Exports to Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program.

Additional footage was released to Fairfax Media by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). It shows crew trying to scoop up the heavily decayed remains of sheep that have died from heat stress and dump them overboard.

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The carcasses, which are just hours old, fall apart when touched, the fat rendered in a way that former live export vet Dr Lynn Simpson said showed they had been cooked from the inside.

The scenes were filmed on now infamous Awassi Express voyage from Fremantle to the Gulf states in August 2017 on which 2,400 sheep died of heat stress.

It was released just days after Labor said it would ban the live sheep trade, despite earlier saying it would wait for the outcome of a snap animal welfare review called by the federal agriculture minister, David Littleproud.

The review, conducted by the live export vet Dr Michael McCarthy, will look at the management of heat stress in the live sheep trade.

Littleproud is due to get the draft report on Monday and the final report by Friday. He previously said he will follow McCarthy’s recommendations – even if they call for an end to the summer trade.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A worker aboard the Awassi Express dumps a decomposed carcass. Photograph: International Transport Workers Federation/Animals Australia

He has also said he will look at tougher penalties for exporters who breach animal welfare rules, which Guardian Australia understands could be fines of more than $1m and jail terms of up to 10 years.

The ITF president and Maritime Union of Australia national secretary, Paddy Crumlin, said the footage of workers in minimal safety gear struggling to remove dead sheep showed that conditions on board live export ships were “a living hell” for both workers and animals.

“Sadly, the utterly disgraceful treatment of animals onboard live export vessels is often mirrored by the equally dismal treatment of seafarers, and this new footage is a terrifying reminder of what life can be like at sea when workers have no rights,” he said in a statement. “It’s a living hell.”

Crumlin said the Australian government should temporarily ban the live sheep trade until it had determined a way for sheep to be transported humanely.

Ullah’s footage was sent in full to the federal and WA agriculture departments last month.

WA is also looking to prosecute Emanuel Exports for animal welfare offences.

The ship at the centre of the debate, the Awassi Express, departed Fremantle with no cargo nine days ago after a two-week delay imposed by the maritime regulator prevented it from loading sheep bound for the Middle East. It was instead due to reach Broome on Sunday to be loaded with cattle bound for south-east Asia.

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The Emanuel Exports managing director, Graham Daws, told the ABC last week that the mass fatality aboard the Awassi last year was due to a “catastrophic weather event” and that banning the trade during the middle eastern summer would mean that “the business would close completely and farmers would be selling their farm”.

The veterinarian aboard the Emanuel Exports stocked ship Al Messilah, which left Fremantle last week with 68,000 sheep on board told the ABC that “heat stress is a very minimal problem”.

About 3,000 sheep died of heat stress on a single voyage on the Al Messilah in 2016.

An analysis by Guardian Australia of 70 mass mortality events investigated by the department of agriculture in the past 10 years found that none resulted in the exporter receiving a fine or loss of licence.