Ships of Shame etc...
The media do have to sell copy so they will hype up their case. When I was on the "Farid Fares" we discharged the sheep on to a large wooden jetty where the receiver had made a compound with crowd control barriers. The compound held about 2000 sheep and when full a local chap would come along with another sheep, probably female, on a rope leash. The sheep in the compound noticed the other lone sheep and would follow it wherever the handler was going. I followed the herd of sheep one time to see what the next stage was. They were taken through a small built up area and into concrete holding areas where they would eventually be slaughtered. Any sheep that were unable to walk, either lame or blind, were taken to the holding area by truck. At the end of discharge the shore crowd would slaughter the infirm sheep on the jetty. I will not describe this as it is not pleasant to our western culture but perfectly normal to their culture.
The conditions for the sheep on the livestock carrier I sailed on were harsh. They were supposed to be sheared prior to loading in Australia and more often than not still had a good fleece which was disappointing as it was summer in the northern hemisphere and especially hot in the Persian Gulf. Being crammed into pens for as long as 20 days with constant artifical light would not be tolerated for road transport. Upon saying this however, some of the conditions I witnessed in the shore facility were worse. We at least had some compassion and did what little we could to ease their plight. Refrigeration is the answer. It was said to us that for every live sheep we could have carried 3 dead ones, frozen and not butchured. It was also rumoured that there was $90Aus per head difference between the bought and sold price. This would allow for a higher death rate when in transit. If there was less profit per head more of an effort might have been made to keep the sheep alive which would probably have meant less sheep per voyage and less profit. The only way to carry animals such as sheep, goats, cattle etc is on specially designed vessels and not ones that were altered. The "Danny F" was a converted oil tanker with the forward section cut away and all the sheep were on pens above deck. Their death rate was not as great as ours and by all accounts the ship was eaiser in every respect. The pens above deck on the "Farid Fares" were well above bridge level aft of the accomodation and level with the bridge forward. When in ballast condition we couldn't see straight ahead.
We did however have our weekly bar-b-q's on the boat deck and there was a certain ambience when eating a lamb chop while being watched by thousands of sheep. I was and still am a carnivore. Do plants not scream when they are cut?
Having been a cadet and then 3/O on the live sheep trade between Aus and the PG, I spent around 5 years on these ships in all, starting from the late 80's.
The vessels I sailed on were mainly the Al Yasrah and the Al Qurain, which were converted tankers (sister vessels), each capable of carrying upto about 110000 standard sized merino wethers (neutered rams).
All sheep accommodation was above decks - 7 decks above the main deck, each deck divided into two tiers.
Each deck was further divided into 7 races or runs, running fore and aft, with alleyways between them. These runs were divided into pens, which housed the sheep. Each run had feeding troughs on one side, and watering troughs on the other. Supply of feed and water was plentiful, and delivery into these troughs was automated - there was a fodder pump room and a fresh water pump room for the purpose. To cite an example, a typical voyage from Portland or Fremantle to Kuwait (16 and 12 days respectively), would see the ship leave Aus with around 11000 tons of FW, and 3600 tons of feed. Ventilation through the sheephouse was a combination of natural wind and forced air ventilation to minimise ammonia buildup and hotspots.
The sheep were not cramped together randomly - there are strict minimum floor space requirements for sheep, which are based on average body weight. These were mandated by Australian law, and enforced by the Department of Agriculture. Often we had Government vets sailing with the ships to ensure that all laws and regulations were complied with.
Vessels were manned adequately with Bangladeshi stockmen - 3 to the deck, who would dispose of daily mortalities, and generally keep their sheep decks reasonably clean (under the cir***stances). Highly experienced officers (ex SSM, Maersk, Clausen and others) ensured that the vessels were generally well run and maintained, in spite of being a little long in the tooth.
The floors of the sheep pens were made of water resistant woodply composite - these were much kinder to the sheep's hooves than steel.
The main cause of ongoing mortality was disease - salmonella for the major part. The sheep were medicated against this (onboard through their FW system) to minimise the mortality. As far back as I can remember on those ships, a mortality bonus was on offer for each trip where mortality was less than 1.8% of the consignment - we usually made the bonus. These sheep being neutered, were for routine meat supply to the PG - the fleet used to undertake one trip each year to NZ - Napier/Timaru, to pick up ram lambs (b****cks et al), during the month of Ramadan, for the ritual sacrifice. These were destined for Jeddah.
Over and above the sheep, these vessels used to carry upto 1000 head of cattle on the main deck (which was not divided into two tiers).
Occasionally, specially in the PG, with a following wind, these ships would develop 'hotspots', where sheephouse temperatures would rise dangerously. This was normally countered by the OOW by altering course, and changing the relative wind velocity - this would normally (not necessarily always) clear up the situation in the sheephouse.
In any case, temperatures in the PG in the Northern summer were always unpleasant (circa 38-42° C or even more), and mortality was somewhat higher. I have only ever had a single disastrous trip where we lost somewhere in the region of 7500 sheep due to mirror seas and high temperatures.
By and large, the sheep were treated humanely on board (apart from the odd barbecue), and with due respect to any legislative requirements. The consignee in Kuwait (who also owned and operated the fleet of vessels) was the main livestock trading entity in Kuwait (and the Middle East). They had reasonably modern facilities - feedlots, abattoirs, cold storages. They also engaged the services of highly experienced Australian vets and stockmen to oversee their livestock.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for consignees elsewhere in the Middle East, where there was no evidence of process or facility in the treatment of these animals.
Being a pacifist, and a (then) vegetarian, I was still able to reconcile over the years to working on these vessels - the sheep were certainly treated with humanity for as long as they were in our custody.
It was the treatment at the hands of other consignees in the Middle East that was somewhat questionable.
Cheers to all,
Bugga
(Smoke)
"Never play leapfrog with a unicorn"