Wool industry & live transport developments

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

“If animals have been subjected to cruelties in their
breeding, transport, slaughter, or in their general welfare, meat
from them is considered impure and unlawful to eat,” taught the late
imam B.A. Hafiz al-Masri of the Shah Jehan Mosque in England,
quoting parts of the Q’ran and Hadiths (sayings) of the Prophet which
forbid cruelty to animals.
Exposing crulety in the shipment of animals to the Middle
East for slaughter, and mulesing, the practice of cutting away
skin flaps from the anal region of sheep to prevent flystrike, PETA
in June 2005 tried to air a paid ad depicting mulesing and quoting
al-Masri on Al Jazeera, the Qatar TV network known for gruesome war
coverage, but the ad was refused.
The Australian Wool Growers Association in August 2005 broke
with the rest of the Australian sheep industry and agreed to end
mulesing by 2010 if PETA would lift a boycott of Australian wool
exports. Australian agriculture minister Peter McGauran and the
Australian Sheep & Wool Industry Taskforce rejected the deal. ASWIT
is a coalition including the National Farmers Federation and
WoolProducers, the largest organization representing the sheep trade.

Australia suspended livestock exports to Saudi Arabia in
August 2003, after Saudi officials refused to allow the Cormo
Express to unload 57,000 allegedly diseased sheep. The sheep were
marooned at sea for nearly three months until Eritrea at last
accepted the 44,000 survivors. On May 5, 2005, Australian
agriculture minister Warren Truss signed a memorandum of
understanding with Saudi Arabia which requires that live cargoes will
be unloaded into quarantine on land within 36 hours of arrival at the
port of Jeddah.
Animal advocates had hoped that new international maritime
safety regulations taking effect in 2007 would curtail live exports,
since many of the older livestock ships do not meet the rules, but
Welland Rural Exports of Australia in early July 2005 committed $47
million to building a new livestock ship with capacity for 6,500
cattle or 26,000 sheep.