The 52-year-old livestock service Spiridon II stays in quarantine off Turkey with round 20 crew and a couple of,853 cows onboard.
Having departed from Montevideo (Uruguay) certain for Turkey on September 19 with 2,901 heifers, a few of which can be pregnant, the Spiridon II is, over 50 days later, nonetheless unable to ship the animals to shore.
Veterinary authorities are refusing to permit them to disembark as a consequence of an argument over ear tags that assure, amongst different issues, the precise origin and well being monitoring of the animals.
Extra fodder was loaded onto the higher deck of the Spiridon II on November 9, however the vessel was then evacuated from the port. Already, 48 cows are reported to have died.
“At day 56 of their loaded ordeal these mild animals really want some decency prolonged to them from the authorities,” says Dr Lynn Simpson, former dwell export veterinarian.
“Choices should be made a method or one other to get these animals off the ship- be it alive or euthanised.
“It’s not acceptable to intentionally maintain these animals in what should by now be atrocious circumstances. If the ship was adhering to MARPOL, she wouldn’t have washed its decks of sewerage buildup since earlier than passing by way of the strait of Gibraltar, that’s practically a month in the past. These ships are revolting with sewerage buildup after 5 days, and it’s related warmth, humidity and ammonia fuel.”
The crew could be struggling in addition to the animals, says Simpson, having to work in these circumstances and dwell with what are presumably many lifeless, decomposing our bodies so near the bridge and crew accommodation- their solely respite is the possible capacity to have a bathe.
“The crew could be virtually as determined because the cattle to get off the ship at this level. It’s gruelling and miserable work tending to exhausted, confused animals that ought to by no means have been onboard a ship within the first place, not to mention for shut to 2 months.”
Uruguay is South America’s second largest exporter of livestock after Brazil. Within the first eight months of 2025, 265,000 head of cattle have been exported, together with calves, heifers and cows of the Angus, Hereford and Holstein breeds to Turkey (77%), Israel (12%) and Morocco (11%). Between mid-August and mid-September, 45,000 head of cattle have been exported, in keeping with knowledge from the ACG (Asociación de Consignatarios de Ganado, Affiliation of Livestock Consignees).
The Spiridon II is a former Russian normal cargo ship transformed right into a livestock service in 2011 and flies the Togo flag. The vessel has been detained 9 occasions since 2009. Since 2019, port inspections have recognized 167 deficiencies on board regarding working circumstances, air pollution prevention, life-saving home equipment, hearth security, navigation security, and structural situation. The newest inspections have been carried out in Piraeus (Greece) on August 23, 2024 (10 deficiencies) and in Beirut (Lebanon) on October 30, 2024 (three deficiencies) and July 26, 2025 (4 deficiencies).
The Spiridon II was accepted by the European Union’s Directorate-Normal for Well being and Meals Security and used to move livestock between European ports and North African and Japanese Mediterranean nations till no less than mid-2024.
Talks are reportedly underway to increase the voyage and ship the animals to Ukraine, stories animal welfare group Robin des Bois.
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