Around 1500 sheep found missing!

In another surprising development in the Australian sheep saga, at least 1,500 sheep have been found missing from the government quarantine, which remained under the control of the local importing company. After counting of live and dead animals imported from Australia, sources claimed, the officials of Livestock Department Government of Sindh on Tuesday found hundreds of sheep missing from the area raising serious questions about the role of the authorities concerned.
The fresh counting was made on the directive of Sindh High Court though sources claim that the number of missing sheep could be more than 1,500 as around 7,000 were culled/slaughtered out of the presently available 11,000 animals by Thursday evening. The fresh data of missing sheep surfaced on Tuesday (1,500), which was also alarming. According to sources, interestingly another 1,500 sheep were already missing in numbers when the vessel reached Port Qasim. The ship was reportedly carrying 22,000 animals when it left Bahrain Port.
Talking to Business Recorder Roshan Sheikh, Commissioner Karachi confirmed the news about missing of sheep saying that around 1,500 sheep were missing. He said the number of missing animals could have reached over 4,000 if the government had not recovered at least 3,000 sheep from a private farm where they were kept by the importing company secretly. He feared that the missing sheep are either consumed by the company or kept at secret locations.
Replying to queries about the missing animals, official spokesman of PK Live Stock and Meet Company said the sheep were under the control of Quarantine Department and government authorities. As no data has officially been provided to the importing company about the culling made on a daily basis, the company was not responsible for the missing sheep, he added.
However, sources claimed that not only the concerned authorities but also the local importing company was responsible for the missing of infected animals as the premises, which is actually cattle farm of the company, is under the control of the firm.
Sources expressed apprehension that the missing sheep have either been consumed by the importing company or dumped for being dead due to the claimed diseases. According to sources, the culling of infected imported animals was, interestingly, started without ensuring that all imported around 21,000 sheep were present at the location.
Earlier, when sheep were discharged at Port Qasim, they were directly shifted to the company's premises without a quarantine test needed to be made at the port and later the existing location was considered as 'government quarantine'. Police and other concerned government officials had left the premises on Thursday night soon after the announcement of a countrywide holiday on Friday and the sheep were left there for three consecutive days without a check on the part of the government.