By Alina Lilova
Last month, Compassion in World Farming sent out a newsletter to alert to a horrible tragedy that had taken place at sea – thousands of cattle had died stranded on board the ship Gracia del Mar during her journey from Brazil to Egypt. At first, it was not entirely clear what had caused the animals’ deaths and what had happened to the survivors, but it seemed that extreme weather was involved in one way or another. The earlier report mentioned an engine failure which had disrupted the ventilation system on board, resulting in mass overheating. When further details emerged, it appeared that, on the contrary, cold weather was the culprit, with the ship having being caught in a snowstorm off the coast of Algeria. She tried to dock at different ports, but when the Egyptian vets inspected her and saw the animals, they refused to allow them in the country. It was a vicious cycle – all hell turned loose for those still alive and suffering on board, whose chances were being reduced every minute. Compassion had its supporters send more than 40,000 emails to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), asking for more efficient measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future. And yesterday Philip Lymbery published the whole story on his blog: a total of at least 2000 cattle have died, and the remaining 3600 survivors have finally been unloaded in Djibouti (a country at the southern tip of the Red Sea), awaiting further hardships.
