20 000 Australian sheep, shuttled from country to country are now all dead. The sheep were rejected from Bahrain and Kuwait, sent to Pakistan and feedlotted under apparently sub-optimal conditions. Approximately 9000 were subject to an initial brutal cull caught on video footage. That cull was halted by a Pakistani court injunction. The remaining 11000 sheep were to have been slaughtered at a Pakistani abattoir after being cleared of major infectious diseases by Pirbright Institute in the UK. However, Sindh authorities ignored the ruling, excluded the importer and Wellard staff and culled the remainder anyway. The killing was unsupervised and it is assumed that the second cull was no less brutal than the first.

The incident  comes at a time when “protection” of exported Australian animals is supposedly the best it has ever been. This incident has emphatically highlighted the fact that nothing can protect Australian animals once they leave Australia. 

PK Livestock and Meat Company, the company that imported Australian sheep from the "Ocean Drover" when it was rejected from Bahrain are major chilled meat exporters in the Gulf region. The company claims that "Using Australian technology, our beef and mutton plants are equipped with the most up to date systems available. PK is highly regarded as being one of the leading exporters of Halal meat from Pakistan. Our main customers are from the Gulf region and include such countries as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain."
So, Australia export their live sheep to the Middle East but neighbouring Muslim countries, using Australian technology, an Australian director and now, potentially, Australian sheep, export chilled meat. Interesting....so much for the argument against chilled Australian meat to the Middle East!