New Undercover Footage Blows the Lid Off Australia’s Cruel Live-Export Industry

A shocking undercover video exposing Australia’s cruel live export aired on 60 Minutes and it has us all shook.

Obtained by trainee navigator Faisal Ullah last August and released to ABC and Animals Australia, the footage shows sheep crammed in dirty pens, panting from heat stress, and leaping over one another to reach food.


The footage exposes bodies of dead sheep piled up and thrown overboard. It also shows newborn lambs, despite a federal ban on transporting lambs and pregnant ewes on export ships to the Middle East between May and October.

As if the conditions weren’t horrible enough, Ullah reported crew members cutting lambs’ throats and tossing the animals overboard.

See the heartbreaking footage yourself.


This is the first time that footage from onboard an Australian live-export ship has been captured. While industry groups, the Department of Agriculture, and agriculture minister David Littleproud say that conditions on the ship are shocking and unacceptable, the truth is that these conditions are common.

Sue Foster, a livestock veterinarian and spokesperson for Vets Against Live Export, tells The Guardian that the crowded, filthy conditions and extreme heat happen “every time these ships go to the Middle East in summer.


Over the past 30 years, Australia’s live-export industry has shipped over 200 million animals to the Middle East. During this time, more than 2.5 million animals have died in transit and countless more have suffered injury, illness, and distress.

These are living, feeling beings—not cargo.

Each year, billions of cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, and fish are violently killed for food. And despite being just as sensitive and intelligent as the dogs and cats we know and love, farmed animals are relegated to unimaginable torment: extreme confinement, filthy conditions, horrific mutilations, and a merciless death.

Thankfully, each of us has the power to say no to animal abuse by replacing inherently cruel animal products with compassionate vegan alternatives.

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