[Also read After Ship Accident, Romania Plans to Suspend Live Exports to Third Countries]
Live animal export is cruel, pure and simple, and Lady Freethinker is urging officials to stop shipping animals from the EU for slaughter. Sign the petition now to add your voice: End Cruel and Illegal EU Live Animal Exports
Only 180 of the reported 14,600 sheep aboard the Jeddah-bound Queen Hind survived when the ship overturned near a Romanian port last November.
Drowned Sheep, Image Credit: Animals
International
A company salvaging a sunken livestock carrier discovered secret decks
allegedly used for transporting thousands of undocumented animals. The extra
weight is likely what capsized the vessel.
Only 180 of the reported 14,600 sheep aboard the Jeddah-bound Queen Hind
survived when the ship overturned near a Romanian port last November.
Salvage firm Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) first tried lifting the ship
using a crane with a 1,350-ton weight limit, but the cables broke. With the
proper amount of cargo on-board, the ship would only weigh an estimated 800
tons.
Upon further inspection, divers apparently found several sheep-laden decks
not reported in the ship’s cargo plan, indicating that the vessel’s contents
grossly exceeded its maximum carrying capacity.
“[This discovery] confirms our initial suspicion that the vessel capsized
because of overloading,” Gabriel Paun of Animals International told the
Guardian. “We are outraged that this came out from the company bringing the
vessel back to the shore and not from the Romanian government itself.”
Several Romanian officials dismissed these claims. A representative from the
National Veterinary and Food Safety Authority told Adevarul that dead sheep
do not have the same weight as live ones, and the engineers did not take
this into consideration.
GSP maintains that its staff properly calculated the ship’s estimated
weight.
Live animal export is cruel, pure and simple, and Lady Freethinker
is urging officials to stop shipping animals from the EU for slaughter. Sign
the petition now to add your voice:
End Cruel and Illegal EU Live Animal Exports