Live sheep exporter Emanuel Exports animal cruelty charges may be dropped

Revelations that Western Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development allegedly plan to drop the charges have come just a week before Emanuel Exports was due to face trial in the Perth Magistrates Court over the August 2017 mass mortality event on the Awassi Express.

More than 2400 sheep died during the voyage from heat stress, and in 2018 Emanuel Exports was stripped of its licence for more than three years.

In 2019, Emanuel Exports was charged with 16 counts of animal cruelty, relating to carrying of 63,804 sheep on the Awassi Express' enclosed decks from Fremantle through the waters of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to Qatar as part of a longer voyage

The DPIRD has alleged that the sheep suffered unnecessary heat stress that could have been prevented by reducing the number of sheep on the ship, reviewing the transport route or transporting the sheep at a time other than the Northern Hemisphere summer.

The DPIRD has not yet confirmed if the charges will be dropped, only saying that the matter is currently set for trial starting from November 20, with a hearing set on November 14 "to deal with matters related to the trial".

"DPIRD is unable to provide any further comment on matters that are before the courts," they said.

It is understood that the matter will be discontinued at the Tuesday hearing.

The Australian Alliance for Animals has called for the WA Crime and Corruption Commission to conduct an inquiry, with policy director Jed Goodfellow saying the public deserved answers.

"These are very serious criminal charges regarding a matter of great public interest," Dr Goodfellow said.

"To inexplicably drop the charges at the eleventh hour on the basis of 'the public interest and the interests of taxpayers' raises more questions than it answers.

"Is the government saying it is too expensive to uphold the law when it comes to animal cruelty?

"This sends entirely the wrong message to the WA community - it's essentially saying that if a defendant has deep pockets, they'll get a free pass on alleged breaches of the law."

WA Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis said the video taken onboard the Awassi Express was horrifying and the farmers she knew were "shocked by the case".

"They would not want their sheep treated like that," she said.

"Importantly, a range of measures have since been implemented to improve animal welfare on live export ships and ensure we don't see a repeat of those issues.

"The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development brought the charges based on legal advice at the time, and I expect they will be following legal advice on the path forward, putting the public interest and the interest of taxpayers first."