Department action over 3027 dead sheep a FARCE.

Heat stress was the main factor contributing to the latest high mortality voyage due to extreme humidity experienced over several days while transiting the lower Arabian Gulf and discharging at Qatar. Nothing new there....Bader in 2013 for example.

SO what action did the department take? To reduce reducing stocking density of the vessel and LOAD INDUSTRIAL FANS. OMG....are they for real? Wet bulb temperature is WBT and no amount of industrial fans...(placed where? how? using what measure of efficacy?) ...is going to prevent a disaster.

And then, it gets even better, the next consignment reported a mortality rate of 1.38% and this was considered fine. Well it isnt....this is still well above the industry average (0.9%) ....and should have been deemed problematic...ie problem has not been fixed.

Bottom line is that voyages to the Middle East summer are too risky in terms of animal welfare and must cease. Second bottom line is that despite all AAV (vet) input and expertise, the Department has absolutely NO CLUE about live ex voyages.