Teaching sheep handling methods in Bahrain

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http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=189225 & Sn=BNEW & IssueID=30133

 

Leading the flock

By REBECCA TORR

 

MANAMA

 

AN Australian female truck driver will be teaching local sheep stockmen how

to successfully load and unload the animals. Animal welfare specialist

Sharon Dundon will be teaching key techniques to stockmen in Bahrain and

throughout the Middle East to improve the way Australian animals imported to

the region are cared for and managed. The 34-year-old, who is a livestock

consultant for Meat and Livestock Australia and LiveCorp, will be working in

feedlots, ports and quarantine facilities.

 

" The aim is to work with Middle East stockmen that receive our sheep and

train them in animal handling, " Mrs Dundon told the GDN.

 

" Arab sheep are different to our sheep because they are raised in the

backyard and are very domesticated.

 

" But when ours arrive they seem wild because they are raised in vast open

spaces and don't see people very often.

 

" Our sheep won't walk pass the stockmen, where Arab sheep would.

 

" At the port if people are standing in front of the sheep they won't come

down the ramp. So I will be working with stockmen to minimise the stress to

the sheep and the stockmen. "

 

Mrs Dundon will be working in a supportive role to her husband Peter, who

has been based in the Middle East with MLA and LiveCorp as a livestock

services manager for the past two years.

 

They will work together over the next three to five years to provide

training, education and information to local stockmen to help them better

understand Australian animals.

 

Improving the welfare of animals during and after the transport process is a

long-held passion for Mrs Dundon, who holds a Masters of Rural Science in

Animal Welfare and Livestock Transport from the University of New England

and is an experienced long distance livestock transport truck driver.

 

The livestock consultant has already witnessed the positive impact

Australian training is having throughout the Middle East and Indonesia after

making several working trips in recent years.

 

" All animals have a flight sign that is like a bubble. If people go into the

bubble they will take off, " explained Mrs Dundon, who was born and bred on

her parent's sheep and cattle property in Australia.

 

" The key points are teaching position and control and pressure and release

techniques.

 

" If the sheep is doing the right thing and you back off it will keep doing

the right thing, but if you still apply pressure when it is doing the right

thing it will get confused. They are very simple techniques but they make a

big difference. "

 

becky