Nearly a thousand cows stranded at sea on ‘pariah ship’ may be euthanized: report
More than 850 cows stranded at sea in horrific conditions on a shipping vessel in the Mediterranean may have to be euthanized, according to a report.
The ship left Cartagena, Spain, months ago for Turkey, where the animals were to be sold, according to Reuters. However, authorities there blocked the shipment and said no live animals could be imported from Spain, out of fear of bluetongue infection, a virus transmitted by insects that causes lameness and hemorrhaging in cattle, according to Reuters, which first obtained the secret report from the Spanish government.
Spanish agriculture officials examined the livestock ship, the Karim Allah, which first set sail in December, and said the animals were no longer suitable for transport and should be euthanized.
After Turkey rejected the cattle, no one else would take them, turning the ship into an “international pariah,” Reuters said. When several countries refused even to let the ship dock to replenish their food, the cows were forced to live on water alone for days.
Inspectors from the Spanish ministry of agriculture counted 864 living animals on board, with two corpses still on board out of 22 cows that had died at sea, Reuters reported, noting that the other remains had been “chopped up and thrown overboard.”
Animal rights activists have come down hard on the animals’ treatment and the push to euthanize them, saying that the diseases they are supposedly carrying have not been proven because blood samples were blocked from being taken to a lab for analysis, reported The Guardian.
The ship is owned by Talia Shipping Line, and the company’s lawyer demanded Saturday that the impounded samples be returned for bluetongue testing. Otherwise, he said, there was no indication that the cows had any ailment that warranted culling them, according to Euro Weekly.
“It (the report) does not mention any serious diseases that explain why these animals must be destroyed,” Talia lawyer Miquel Masramon said, according to Euro Weekly.
