THE shocking news that 67,000 sheep were burnt or drowned at sea after a fire on the ship carrying them from Australia to the Middle East, quite rightly caused outrage among the general public world-wide. How many more times must these tragedies occur before this appalling trade is banned?

Live sheep exports from Australia commenced over 20 years ago and, currently, more than five million sheep are shipped annually, mostly to the Middle East. On average, 120,000 animals will spend up to six weeks on board each carrier, confined in appalling conditions.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), together with our Australian member organisations, have campaigned for a number of years to get this live transport stopped. Ironically, it is only when disasters such as this occur that the issue is brought to the public's attention. In fact, such incidents are not uncommon: this is the third live sheep carrier to sink following a fire and there have been many other cases of heavy losses due to starvation or suffocation.f=Zurich Bd BTANDREW DICKSON, Chief Executive, World Society of the Protection of Animals, Lawn Lane, London SW8.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.