Jo-Anne McArthur
October 28, 2020Animal Law & Policy ProgramGuardian exclusive: Livestock ships twice as likely to be lost as cargo vessels
Professor Kristen Stilt, Faculty Director of the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, who is writing a book on the long-distance transport of animals, said: “With the Guardian’s shocking findings… [it’s] time for an open and honest assessment of an industry that has caused one crisis after another."
Ships carrying live animals are at least twice as likely to suffer a “total loss” from sinking or grounding as standard cargo vessels, the Guardian revealed in an exclusive today by journalist Sophie Kevany. In the past year alone there have been two disasters involving animals in transit.
Last November, at least 14,000 sheep drowned after the Queen Hind capsized en route to Saudi Arabia from Romania. And last month, Gulf Livestock 1, a carrier transporting almost 6,000 cattle, sank off the Japanese coast en route to China from New Zealand. Forty crew members remain missing and are presumed dead.
Professor Kristen Stilt, Faculty Director of the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, who is writing a book on the long-distance transport of animals, is quoted: “With the Guardian’s shocking findings… [it’s] time for an open and honest assessment of an industry that has caused one crisis after another,” she said.
She added: “That assessment should recognise that the transport of chilled and frozen meat is the way that nearly all meat travels in commerce today. The idea of sending live animals is a holdover from a bygone era.”
Read the full Guardian article.