Spanish authorities are about to start slaughtering hundreds of calves that have spent months crossing the Mediterranean, said a lawyer for cattle carriers.
The 864 cattle that will be slaughtered are on board Karim Allah, which is moored in the Spanish port of Cartagena. It is one of two ships that left Spain in mid-December to deliver live loads of young bulls. The second ship, Elbeik, carried nearly 1,800 cattle from Tarragona.
Elbeik, now carrying more than 1,700 head of cattle, also appears to be returning to Spain.
Both shipments faced problems when they were refused entry by several countries, including Turkey and Libya, due to fears that the animals would have a disease called bluetongue, which causes lameness and hemorrhage among cattle, but does not affect humans.
The disease regulations outlined by Spanish officials mean that livestock cannot re-enter the EU after trying to enter Libya. The slaughter order issued to the administration of Karim Allah, seen by the Guardian, states that Libya: “Prohibits the export of animals to the EU due to the existence of, among other epizootic diseases of great impact for cattle, foot-and-illness mouth in that state. “
“Spanish authorities have indicated that they will start killing livestock on Tuesday,” said Miquel Masramón, a lawyer representing the Talia Shipping Line. Karim Allah is owned by Khalifeh Livestock Trading and managed by Talia Shipping Line, both based in Lebanon, while livestock is owned by third parties.
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In a statement on Saturday, the ministry of agriculture indicated that if Karim Allah did not begin to “isolate and slaughter animals in accordance with applicable regulations”, the ministry would do so.
A ministry source said on Sunday that the transporter was told he had until noon on Monday to begin the massacre. The ministry said: “It is up to the shipowner in the first instance to isolate and slaughter the animals. He has until tomorrow morning [Monday] to communicate its decision to management. “
Both Talia Shipping Line director Majed Eid and Masramón said they would fight the decision. The goal, they say, is to give the cattle time to heal and then find a new buyer, once they have the results of the blue tongue blood tests done last week.
A report by Spanish veterinary officers who boarded Karim Allah last week said the captain told them about 22 deaths at sea. Another nine cattle were not counted. The report states that 20 of the animals that died were stung and thrown overboard during the trip, citing information provided by the captain.
The report concluded that the animals suffered from the long journey and were generally in poor condition. Some were not well and could not be transported outside the EU, or could not enter Europe. Euthanasia would be the best for your health and well-being, he concluded.
The report did not say whether the cattle had blue tongue, but noted other conditions of skin, eyes and legs, including alopecia, flaking, scabs and joint inflammation compatible with septic arthritis.
On Sunday, Masramón said he was trying to obtain a new veterinary report and expected a veterinarian to enter the ship and “inspect the animals and respond to the Spanish authorities’ veterinary report. The problem now is getting the [vet] official approval to enter the port. “
Second ship returning to Spain
On Saturday, Marine Traffic’s tracking website showed Elbeik returning to Spain bound for Cartagena.
The ship’s return to Spain was confirmed in an email on Sunday from the chief veterinarian of the Cypriot government, Christodoulos Charalambous Pipis, who monitors the Elbeik. Last week, he spent several days at anchor on the northern coast of Cyprus, outside the port of Famagusta.
“Our information is that the ship’s captain said that the ship will return to Spain and today I was told that it would arrive in Spain very soon,” he said. “My Spanish counterpart has already been informed by me since the first moment we received this information.”
At the end of last week, a source told the Guardian that of the nearly 1,770 animals loaded, about 35 may have died and the rest were in good condition. “They are limos and Charolais cross [bulls], between six and 12 months, ”said the source.
Representatives of Karim Allah and Elbeik blamed officials at the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture for their situation, accusing them of an error in animal health certification that led port officials to refuse the ships’ entry.
The source said he was “100% sure” that the ship’s cattle were free of the blue tongue. “There was an error in the Spanish animal health paperwork. That’s how it started. They wrote Aragon [as the cattle’s origin]. Aragon has not been free of the blue tongue in the past 24 months. “
The animals, he said, are not from Aragon, but from Zaragoza and Teruel, which are “150km from the focus [of the bluetongue areas]”, And fulfilled the requirement to come from an bluetongue-free area.
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture previously told the Guardian that the situation of the vessels “had nothing to do with the actions of the Spanish administration” and that the cattle came from areas free of bluetongue.
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