Bovine Tragedy WATCH: Massive shipload of cattle sinks in piranha-infested Amazon
October 15, 2015 Fusion.net
The live export cattle ship which rolled over in northern Brazil took with it almost all of the 5,000 lives which were left to fend for themselves. Very few of the cattle which managed to escape the ship, shown in images swimming around, or standing on, the capsized hull actually survived. Most were swept away and drowned in the piranha infested waters. It is believed that fewer than 100 were able to be rescued. A mortality rate of at least 98% for that short 'voyage'.
Dead
cattle now litter the banks of the mouth of the Amazon, the foul stench of death
is reported to be everywhere downstream from the sunken ship. Add to this the
environmental damage from the fuel, oil and various other contaminants which
have been dumped into the river, there are now some very angry people there.
In typical form for people of the live export trade, their main concern expressed is not for the lives lost, nor for the environmental and social damage it has caused, it is for the money lost. They may feel that insurance will cover them, but insurance underwriters will be challenging why they should be paying out; no doubt they will demand the ship operator and /or port operator face some very tough scrutiny, and that's as it should be. Whilst the cause has yet to be determined, negligence of some form is the most obvious candidate, which could ultimately mean that financial losses and compensation have to be borne, at least in part, by any operator which is deemed to have been negligent.
If there is any good to come of this, it could be that the Lebanese company which owns and operates the ship, which has several other very old, dodgy looking livestock carriers, may be forced out of business. That would be good riddance!
Comment: That live export exists is an affront to our humanity. If there was no demand, there’d be no supply. Read: Abolition of Animal Exploitation: The Journey Will Not Begin While We Are Walking Backwards by Gary L. Francione