PETA and Annalise Braakensiek on Naked Truth

“Lambs suffer and die in live export”. That’s the message that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has associated with Australian actress and model Annalise Braakensiek. The campaign to end live exports and boycott Merino wool has raised the ire of Australian sheep farmers and is now raising the possibility of legal action from the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission.

I’ll gladly shed my clothes if it will help shed light on the cruelty of live sheep exports,” said Annalise in January 2006. “I urge Australia to heed the call of thousands of people around the world by banning live exports.”

PETA, on the savethesheep.com web site, says that each year in Australia, approximately 6 million sheep are “disposed of” by being shipped thousands of miles “mired in their own waste on open-decked, multi-tiered ships, through all weather extremes, to the Middle East and North Africa”. Shipboard mortality is high, and for every sheep who dies, many more become ill or are injured. “Sick or injured sheep are often ground up alive in mincers or dumped overboard to drown or be devoured alive by sharks. Those who do survive the trip arrive in countries where animal welfare standards are non-existent and are slaughtered while completely conscious – a practice that is illegal in Australia.”

The live export issue was highlighted in 2003 when the Cormo Express, a ship carrying over 50,000 sheep to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, was turned away because of the alleged incidence of scabby mouth. A 16 day voyage turned into a two month voyage, during which approximately 5000 sheep died. Finally the Australian Government was able to negotiate the offloading of the sheep in Massalah in Eritrea.

PETA is campaigning to end the live export of sheep from Australia, asking web visitors to write to Australian Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran.

Photography by Rodney Evans commissioned by PETA in 2004.

Annalise appeared as Claudia Macpherson in the TV series, Pizza, and the 2003 movie Fat Pizza. She’s been included in lists of the world’s top sexy women by mens magazines Ralph and FHM.