Horizon Ship Brokers have listed the Al Messilah for sale. This old ship, built 1980, has been an industry mainstay out of Fremantle (and formerly Adelaide), carting shipload after shipload of sheep  across the Equator to the Middle East for decades. The export industry claimed high welfare standards on this ship  despite multiple high mortality events and a mortality rate that plummeted after the sheep were finally given more space and not permitted to sail to the Middle Eastern summer (post the Awassi Express expose). Only the sheep could know the suffering endured on this vessel but we have a fair idea. Good riddance Al Messilah.

See: https://horizonship.com/ship/185m-livestock-carrier-for-80250-sheep-and-1107-cattle-of-400-kg/

ESCAS was set up to ensure that animals in the export chain had animal welfare protection throughout. It is not monitored by government and nor is it subject to independent audits. The only requirements are that the exporters apply, say it is OK (ie have table and knife, and sign the document)  and Dept stamps it. The Dept says that there are chronic issues at a low level but there is no scientific basis for that comment as no-one is performing audits. The low level is because they are rarely exposed. When AA turns up with their covert surveillance in the Middle East, they have near 100% success rate in detecting unequivocal ESCAS failure and abuse. Given that no-one else is auditing, and that exporters rarely self-report, that figure actually represents an extraordinarily high rate of ESCAS non-compliance. 

Thus it was no surprise that The Guardian reports that exported Australian sheep have  again  been  mistreated at a Middle Eastern abattoir – the sixth investigation involving sheep shipped by Perth-based exporter Livestock Shipping services in seven years and the second time for the Hijazi & Ghosheh slaughterhouse near Amman in Jordan. In July 2021, shipping of Australian animals to another Hijazi & Ghosheh-owned slaughterhouse in Jordan was permanently suspended, following similar breaches of welfare rules. And in 2023, an undercover investigation by Animals Australia alleged that Australian sheep exported to Oman by LSS had been sold outside approved supply chains, with the investigation still not finalised in 2025. So, as usual the Dept does nothing, the industry doesnt care because they know the Dept will do nothing  and CEO of ALEC Mark Harvey Sutton trivialises the breaches which as "minor and corrective". 2028 cannot come too soon. 

See: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/09/serious-animal-welfare-concerns-australian-authorities-investigate-alleged-breach-of-livestock-export-rules

Labour MP Rachel Boyack questioned Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard about live export at sea. If this were a comedy skit it would be funny. If it were a critique on political performance it would be damning. But as an insight into how clueless and ill prepared Andrew Hoggard and the NZ Govt are for the resumption of their live export with gold-plated animal welfare, it is frankly unbelievable. Rachel Boyacks face probably really did say it all.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1390706952010035