/asia
(CNN) -- Australian animal protection activists repeated their calls Tuesday for an end to the long-distance transport of livestock after 400 sheep died in a wreck.
A truck carrying the sheep lost control in wet conditions Monday evening and overturned near Corowa, about 310 miles (500 km) southwest of Sydney, police in New South Wales said.
About 300 sheep were killed in the crash; another 100 were put down because of their injuries, police said.
The driver and his 10-year-old son were also hurt.
Handle With Care, an international coalition of animal protection groups, said the crash highlighted the "risks inherent in transporting animals."
"Minimizing the distance animals need to travel on the road reduces the risks to their welfare," said spokesman Hugh Wirth in a statement.
The group said that a spate of crashes have occurred in recent months at a time when the international community has called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government to end the live export of animals for slaughter.
Australia exports livestock to more than two dozen countries, primarily in the Middle East and Asia. Some journeys take up to 35 days from the time sheep leave the farm until the arrive at their destination, the group said.
Many die during the sea voyage, often because they are given an unfamiliar pellet diet -- their only source of food, it said.
Others die in crashes or due to disease.
The primarily Muslim countries that import the sheep slaughter them in accordance with Islamic guidelines -- a halal slaughter is carried out with a single cut to the animal's throat so that death occurs from blood loss.
Handle With Care wants an the government to expand the trade in chilled and frozen meat from Halal-certified slaughterhouses in Australia.
"Where animals need to be transported we must ensure that these journeys are kept to a minimum," Wirth said.
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