<p>Animal rights activists claimed yesterday to have fed pig meat to 70,000 sheep awaiting shipment to the Middle East in an effort to render them unsuitable for consumption by Muslims.</p>
<p>The action was intended to highlight the cruelty of the live animal export trade after a recent scandal in which 57,000 sheep were stranded at sea for 11 weeks. Five thousand of them died after Saudi Arabia refused to take them. The animals, which the Saudis claimed were diseased, were eventually accepted by Eritrea.</p>