In 2024, Australia made history by passing legislation to end live sheep export. This landmark decision will spare millions of sheep from the inherent suffering of long journeys at sea and brutal handling and slaughter in importing countries.
After decades of campaigning, investigations, powerful media exposés, cruelty complaints and Federal court challenges, Animals Australia’s work to end live sheep export finally led to legislation being passed to phase out the cruel trade. This landmark victory was celebrated by caring people everywhere — including an overwhelming majority of Australians [1], even in regional and rural Western Australia [2], the “hub” of the live sheep export industry.
Here are 10 reasons why the live sheep export phase-out has widespread support:
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The chronic stress of live sheep export starts the second the animals leave the farm gate.
Image credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media
1. Because millions of sheep will be spared from extreme, prolonged suffering.
Trucked from farms to feedlots and ultimately transferred onto ships, the stress endured by animals condemned to live export can start weeks before the ships finally begin their gruelling journey. On board, they are penned for weeks at a time (or months, as we saw during the MV Bahijah debacle), exposed to heat stress, illness, injury and all the risks of the open ocean. Hundreds may die, thousands will suffer… and survivors ultimately will live only to endure further stress and handling in importing countries before finally being slaughtered — a terrifying and painful ordeal at best. Live sheep export is inherently cruel from start to finish.
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If thousands of animals are dying due to the conditions inside ships, what are survivors enduring?
2. Because counting bodies is no way to measure ‘welfare.’
Sheep deaths are so common on live export ships, they’re treated as a measure of success: fewer deaths mean a ‘good’ voyage. But mortality rates are not a scientifically valid or appropriate measure of animal welfare [3] — they don’t quantify the suffering of the living. If thousands of sheep are dying due to the shocking conditions on-board live export ships, imagine what the survivors must endure to stay alive?
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Farmers would be mortified to lose so many animals in just a few weeks. Why does the live export industry accept so many deaths?
3. Because the live export industry’s idea of “acceptable” deaths is quite frankly, unacceptable.
In live sheep export, thousands of animal deaths = business as usual. The “acceptable” mortality rate for sheep transported by sea is 1% per voyage [4]. That means the live sheep export industry would have deemed it acceptable for more than 7,700 sheep to die at sea in 2020 [5] — animals suffering and dying for no other reason than being put on a ship. A sheep farmer would be rightly alarmed if 1% of the animals on their property were dying from starvation, infections, respiratory diseases and heat stress. But in live export, the deaths of thousands are dismissed as just the ‘cost of doing business’.
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By continuing to participate in live sheep exports, Australia is sending a harmful message to the rest of the world: we accept this.
4. Because by ending live sheep export, Australia is sending a powerful message to the world – we no longer accept this.
Live exporters have operated for too long behind a PR shield of ‘influencing better animal welfare standards’ globally, when investigation after investigation has reinforced that Australia’s live export industry has instead entrenched and normalised animal cruelty by supplying animals regardless of how they were being treated. Australia’s willingness to participate in live sheep export means that we are endorsing widespread suffering, and effectively exporting animal cruelty around the globe.
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Australians have been speaking out for the victims of live export for decades.
5. Because there is no place in 2025 for a cruel and outdated industry.
When this trade started, there was a very different understanding of animal sentience. Over the decades, the live sheep export trade has proven to be volatile and risky for farmers, distressing to the public, and disastrous for animals. Cramming thinking, feeling animals onto cramped metal ships for weeks at sea, only to be slaughtered on the other side of the world, doesn’t align with community expectations for how animals should be treated in 2025.
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Australia’s live sheep export trade is in significant decline.
6. Because live sheep export is already on its way out.
Australia’s live sheep export trade is already in terminal decline — with sheep exports dropping by 90% over the past two decades [6]. Today, it accounts for just 0.1% of the total value of Australia’s agricultural exports [7]. This phase-out isn’t just a moral imperative, it reflects a reality that even the trade’s staunchest supporters accept: the industry’s time is over. No matter its size, a trade built on suffering has no place in a compassionate future. And now, finally, it’s time to move on.
There is no realistic prospect of a viable live sheep export trade after 1 May 2028. Time to move on.
Live export vet, exporter & consultant Tony Brightling
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The only reason that anybody – including the Commonwealth regulator – was aware that live export regulations were being flagrantly breached in Oman in 2023 is because of an Animals Australia investigation.
7. Because it shouldn’t be left to a charity to police a profit-driven industry.
This phase-out is decades in the making – Animals Australia has conducted dozens of investigations, major media exposés, mounted legal challenges and lodged 76 legal complaints that exposed the unwillingness of exporters to follow even the most basic rules. Time and time again, the only reason that anybody — including the government regulator — was made aware of regulation breaches was because Animals Australia investigators were there to document them. What does it say about this industry that it took a charity — fuelled by community donations — to hold it to account?
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Even after distressing footage of sheep 'cooking alive' on ships shocked the world, starvation & heat stress continue to be the norm on live sheep export ships.
8. Because there’s no way to ‘fix’ an inherently cruel trade.
The live export industry has had decades to show its willingness to try to improve animal welfare, and has consistently failed. Even after whistleblower footage of sheep cooking alive on board routine live export shipments caused a global outcry — suffering continues to be extreme, routine and widespread. Data from independent observers on over 53 live sheep export journeys since the explosive story aired shows sheep were starving on 80% of those voyages, and were suffering from heat stress on 60% of shipments [8]. The live sheep export industry has proven time and time again that there is simply no way to ‘fix’ an industry when animal cruelty is built-in to the business model.
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This terrified sheep survived a gruelling journey only to face fully-conscious slaughter.
9. Because the live sheep export industry’s “best” is still not good enough.
Even when everything goes “right” on a live export voyage — when all the rules are followed and no major disasters occur — animals still suffer. That’s because the standards themselves fall far below what most Australians would consider humane. For example, Australian export laws do not require sheep to be stunned before slaughter. That means many animals are fully conscious when their throats are cut — a practice that would be illegal in Australia, but is accepted by the live export industry.
And while disasters resulting from trade disputes, fires, and rough seas often make headlines, the ‘everyday disaster’ of chronic suffering continues. These are all known and unavoidable risks of shipping live animals across the globe — risks the live export industry is willing to take, because it’s always the animals paying the ultimate price. The truth is: even on a “good day,” live export is cruel. And on a bad day? It’s catastrophic.
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10. Because sheep have suffered enough, and so have caring Australians.
Australians from all walks of life agree: phasing out live sheep export is the right decision. For years, caring people across the world have been confronted by shocking investigation footage — animals crying out in pain and fear, dragged by their horns, ears and legs, desperately struggling as their throats are cut open, panting uncontrollably in stifling heat, tied up and crammed into car boots, or strapped onto roof racks under the blazing sun.
Australian sheep have endured enough. And caring Australians have had enough of the cruelty — and of bearing witness to the suffering forced upon these animals in the name of profit.
Thank you for speaking up on behalf of sheep
Last year, we celebrated the historic passing of legislation to phase out live sheep exports by sea, but in the lead up to the 2025 Federal election, the Coalition campaigned on reversing the ban. While live export lobbyists seized the election period to create division, spread fear, and play politics for their own gain, there was someone conveniently missing from their narrative… the animals.
We took every possible opportunity to remind Australians who were heading to the polls why this dying trade belongs in the history books. Thanks to you, the animals weren’t forgotten. With the Albanese government re-elected in 2025, the phase-out is thankfully officially secure.
Of course, our work isn’t over until the day no animal is forced onto a live export ship – but the latest Federal election result calls for celebration of one of the most significant animal welfare reforms ever achieved globally.
References
[1] More than 7/10 Australians support the live sheep export phase-out – Independent Polling (2022)
[2] 7/10 Western Australians living in rural and regional WA (the heartland of live sheep exports) support the phase- out – Independent Polling (2023)
