ANIMAL welfare activists will call for sheep to be spared the suffering of live export as almost 67,000 are loaded on to a ship in Port Adelaide.
The sheep have been held at a quarantine controlled feedlot near Adelaide for more than a week after also spending about 10 days on board another carrier ship, which broke down and was forced to return to port.
They will start to be loaded onto the replacement ship, the MV Al Shuwaikh, today.
Animals Australia executive director Glenys Oogjes said protesters will gather at the gates to the ship's berth at Port Adelaide and will be calling for the sheep to be spared the suffering of export and cruel slaughter in the Middle East.
"Due to the already excessive handling of these remaining sheep from the Al Messilah, they will be more vulnerable to the ever-present shipboard killers of starvation and salmonella infections," Ms Oogjes said.
"Many will suffer and die on this further long voyage, of that we can all be deadly certain.
"That the exporter has ordered this reloading is unforgivable."
