On July 9, The Guardian reportedon covert imagery captured by Animals Australia during Eid al-Adha in Jordan in June which shows sheep with their throats cut, kicking and gasping as they are tossed alive to the abattoir floor.
“The vision provides clear evidence that the sheep are conscious and experiencing pain as their open neck wounds strike a raised metal bar while being dragged along the slaughter table,” Animals Australia lawyer Shatha Hamade told The Guardian.
Hamade said the footage constituted a direct breach of Australia’s ESCAS rules which aim to ensure Australian animals are under strictly controlled welfare conditions during transport to overseas destinations until slaughter.
In nearly all Australian abattoirs, sheep are stunned prior to having their throat cut, rendering them unconscious. Without stunning first, animals experience extreme pain and fear for several minutes before they slip into unconsciousness from blood loss.
Sheep exported from Australia to overseas markets are not required to be stunned.
The Guardian reports Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council (ALEC) CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton saying the exporter involved was working closely with officials. “At this stage, any breaches of ESCAS appear to be minor.”
Australia is set to ban the live export of sheep from on May 1, 2028.
In December 2024, Harvey-Sutton stated that Australian exporters set the standard globally for animal welfare: the industry led the world in animal welfare with research and development contributing to higher standards in many importing countries.
“Having recently been in-market in the Middle East, it is clear to see that Australian standards create better outcomes for both local and imported animals in the market. If Australia vacates the market due to the Albanese Government’s misguided ban on live sheep, the ability to influence these welfare standards is at risk.”
The professional veterinarian association Vets Against Live Export says Australia claims to have the best live export standards because most other countries don’t have any. The organization notes a steady stream of whistleblowers who have highlighted inhumane handling and slaughter methods, with sheep left injured but conscious; sheep struggling against blunt blades at their throat; injured sheep being thrown onto the blood-soaked floor where other sheep lie slowly losing consciousness.
Spokesperson Dr Sue Foster says: “When Animals Australia 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 (LSS) in seven years and the second time for the Hijazi & Ghosheh slaughterhouse near Amman in Jordan.
“The Guardian noted that 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 finalized in 2025.”
