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GEELONG, Australia––A Geelong County Court jury on May 6, 2005
acquitted Ralph Hahnheuser, 42, of “contaminating feed to cause economic
loss.”
Hahnheuser admitted adding shredded pork to the water and feed given to
sheep at a feedlot in Portland, South Australia, on November 19, 2003,
as he immediately afterward announced to news media. Hahnheuser pleaded
innocent by reason of having committed the act to prevent cruelty to the
sheep, who were to have been shipped to Kuwait the next day.
Islamic dietary law forbids eating pork or having contact with it. Hahnheuser
hoped that the sheep would not be exported if they were known to have
possibly consumed pork. The shipment of about 70,000 sheep was delayed
for two weeks. Representatives of two sheep exporting firms estimated
that the action cost them $1.3 million (Australian funds).
The Hahnheuser acquittal came three days after Australian agriculture
minister Warren Truss signed an agreement to resume shipping sheep to
Saudi Arabia. Livestock exports to Saudi Arabia were suspended in August
2003 after the Saudis refused to accept a cargo of 57,000 allegedly diseased
sheep transported by the Cormo Express. Australia argued to no avail that
the sheep were healthy. About 13,000 sheep died aboard the Cormo Express
during the next three months. The 44,000 survivors were eventually donated
to Eritrea.
Truss said he had won a pledge from Saudi Arabia that livestock would
be unloaded within 36 hours of reaching the port of Jeddah, but could
not guarantee that the Saudis would accept all livestock shipments.
The Hahnheuser verdict may have encouraged the Australian Woolgrowers
Association to escalate efforts to end a confrontation with PETA over
the practice of “mulesing” without going to court.
“Mulesing, which involves cutting skin folds from around a sheep’s
anus to prevent fly-strike, will be banned from 2010 and has long been
opposed by animal activists,” the Melbourne Age summarized on May
9.
The AWA at an early May meeting with Mark Pearson, chief executive of
Animal Liberation New South Wales, “presented evidence that a new
analgesic spray could reduce by 85% the pain suffered by sheep who undergo
mulesing,” the Age said, adding that “Pearson welcomed the analgesic
spray trials as a ‘serious and significant move forward.’”
Pearson “pledged to urge PETA to lift an international boycott against
Australian wool on the condition the spray is used,” said the Age.
“It is unclear whether the breakthrough will put an end to an Australian
Wool Innovations case against PETA, presently in federal court,”
the Age added.
The court rejected the original case on March 21, but gave Australian
Wool Innovation until May 25 to refile an amended claim.
[Updates about the anti-live export and mulesing campaigns are at <www.liveexportshame.com>.]
