World

"We're poor little lambs, who have lost our way . . . "

Eight thousand lost lambs, now fully grown into muttonhood, have been haunting the harbors of the Middle East for two months. Originally sent from Perth to Saudi Arabia, which buys 3 1/2 million Australian sheep a year, this flock was turned away after the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture and Water asserted that the bleaters were afflicted with sheep pox and bluetongue. Australian officials say those diseases do not exist in their country and that the Saudis were pressured by their own sheep producers to cut imports.

Abu Dhabi and other Middle East locales refused to admit the suspect sheep, and Jordan and Egypt would not even take them free. An Italian company finally offered to take them on consignment for resale in Europe, but Egypt balked at allowing the sheep through the Suez Canal and escorted the ship out of Egyptian waters. Last week the firm posted a $250,000 guarantee that no sheep or carcasses would be dumped in the canal, and the ship set sail for Italy. That seems like a happy ending, except possibly from the point of view of the sheep.