MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Animal welfare demand inquiry into death of 400 pregnant heifers en route to Russia
Apparently Pearl of Para docked in Gibraltar and smelled “awful” The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Compassion in World Farming are calling on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take immediate action following reports that 400 pregnant cattle among a total of 3,900 cattle being transported by ship from the United States to Russia have died en route.
The groups are urging USDA to thoroughly investigate the incident and take all necessary steps to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
Last week Compassion in World Farming received complaints from a Gibraltar supporter that the ship, called the Pearl of Para, was crammed with cattle and had docked temporarily on July 30.
The supporter raised concerns because the ship reportedly smelled “awful.” The ship was on its way to Russia. Accounts of the incident suggest that the animals may have suffocated on ammonia fumes due to a breakdown in manure removal and ventilation systems with no back-up system in place.
US regulations require that vessels transporting animals for export have spare motors and fans available on board for each type of motor or fan used, in order to facilitate replacement or repair of the ventilation system if any malfunction occurs during the voyage.
Cattle exports from the United States have expanded rapidly in the past two years, as countries like Turkey, Russia, and Kazakhstan try to establish breeding herds.
According to USDA, last year approximately 100,000 animals—many of them pregnant dairy cattle—left from the east coast on voyages to Europe and Asia lasting more than two weeks.
“We don’t know how many animals become sick or injured or, as happened in this case, die on these voyages,” said Dena Jones, farm animal program manager for AWI.
“The suffering involved in the suffocation of 400 animals must be immense and shouldn’t be tolerated by the people or their governments on either side of the Atlantic.”
“This tragedy illustrates that it is impossible to ensure the health and welfare of animals on such long journeys.
Cramming pregnant cows onto a ship for days on end is downright inhumane and unacceptable,” said Leah Garces, USA director for Compassion in World Farming.
“We hope USDA will take a long hard look at this incident and realise that is no justification for these nightmarish journeys.”
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Read all commentsEstes trabalhos que hoje esta acontecer no mundo é obra dos corruptos os responsáveis de transportes de animais de um pais para o outro não olham para a segurança e de higiene dos animais este acidente aconteçe por falta de segurança nos transporte do gado dentro do navio fecharam os animais dentro do navio e vamos embora o mais depressa possivel agora é a investigação e os resultados serão nulos
Aug 23rd, 2012 - 10:49 am 0I'm not a vegetarian and have nothing against the eating of meat, but the way animals are treated in the industry is often a complete disgrace and has to be changed
Aug 23rd, 2012 - 12:05 pm 0The owner of the cattle does NOT want to see any single one become injured, overly stressed and especially die. This would be a huge cost for the owner and all measures are done to prevent these type of things. If the owner of the ship was bad at their job and that is what caused the deaths, then you can bet that they wont be getting much more business. Anyone that chooses to do business with them faces massive economic lost and the risk of bankruptcy. Also transporting pregnant cows doesn't seem very logical either. They eat more, die easier, so I have to question the reality of that statement. If anything they had just been artificially inseminated and then were boarded on the ships. You would not want to transport cows that are several months in - they'll just abort the calves and guess what??!!! more economic loss.
Aug 23rd, 2012 - 04:25 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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