Livestock carrier Gulf Livestock 1 sent a distress signal at 4:45am NZT yesterday in the East China Sea. The area is affected by Typhoon Maysak. At 4pm a patrol plane spotted a lifeboat – with no people in it – and a man in lifejacket nearby.
The ship departed Napier on 14 August carrying 5,800 cows bound for China. 43 crew are reported to be on board, including two New Zealanders.
SAFE Campaigns Manager Marianne Macdonald says this tragedy demonstrates the risks in the live export trade.
“These cows should never have been at sea. To make matters worse they’re likely all pregnant.”
“This is a real crisis, and our thoughts are with the families of the 43 crew who are missing with the ship. But questions remain, including why this trade is allowed to continue.”
Macdonald says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor must, at the very least, place a moratorium on live exports while his review is underway.
“This is a high-risk trade that puts the lives of animals at risk which is why the export of live animals must be banned.”
Sickening, my sadness is for all those pregnant cows that we fucking abuse every day here in AO/NZ. Fuck the crew.
No. The crew are probably treated worse than the animal cargo.Fuck the owners of the Panama registered ship whoever and wherever they are. And fuck those of us in NZ who have allowed this trade to continue.
43 people doing their job to support their families in mainly 3rd world countries are possible lost at sea and all you can say is F–k them . You are truly a despicable person
Tuibelle: “Fuck the crew”
Absolutely despicable comment. The sort of thinking that one would think the Daily Blog would ban.
No. The crew are probably treated worse than the stock. Fuck those who deal in this trade and hide behind Panama registration, whoever and wherever they are. And fuck those of us in NZ who allow this trade to continue. Way past time it was stopped.
Almost six thousand cows perished that is animal abuse on a major scale. So why are we allowing live exports.
There has hardly been any coverage about the share number of cows that perished. And to make matters worse only one person survived out of 43 people on board that vessel. We seriously need to change this live export policy.
Absolutely disgusting.
Free trade.
Secure work places.
Economic growth.
This is how such events look…
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/ship-carrying-5000-cows-sank-brazil/
For fucks sake. This is a tragic accident. It could happen to a ship carrying fucking anything. It could happen to a passenger ship carrying thousands of human beings. The fact that this ship went down is not argument in itself to ban the live animal trade.
It is conditions on the ships and the way the animals are treated and general animal welfare standards that are the issue. Not the fact that the ship sunk. And yes the animals drowned, that’s a loss of ‘life’. But the animals were destined for slaughter in any case. Did they die any more horribly by being drowned? Perhaps or perhaps not.
What people should do is review their diets. Do we really need to eat so much meat? Is it right to slaughter sentient animals like pigs (as smart as a dog), or even cows and sheep. We don’t have to go complete vegan, in my view. But what we can do is to minimise animal suffering of those animals that are capable of suffering. Pigs, cows, and sheep come into this category, I would think.
Why are we even exporting live cattle?
I can see in 20 years we’ll be importing our milk from China in Panamanian registered tankers.
The relevant Minister is Damien O’Connor, I think, – He’s Min for Agriculture.
My hope for after the election is that Jacinda puts a bomb under some of those who fly so quietly under the radar, doing… What exactly? There are several there who REALLY need to get off their chumps and up their game, or be removed from such high office. If they don’t respect it enough to take some responsibility, to think about what they’re doing, and to act on it, then they are wasting our tax dollars (including all that GST we pay) – We pay them!!! Why do they get a free ride, some of them? WHY is O’C not being shamed for this present disaster?
Export the kiwi fruit genetics, export the dairy genetics. Kiwis would export geese laying golden eggs.
A few questions.
– How many of the crew were white and how many were brown?
– Where did the white crew members work and live in this floating cage, where the brown?
– How can one believe that such monster superstructure is not most volatile under challenging seafaring conditions?
– How is the weather forecast linked to the ship’s route?
– Who gave the order to sail through known typhoon area?
– Can we establish a ‘full trail of sufferings’ for the animals, from farm-departure in NZ to the expected final point of arrival in China?
Nature will always find a way to correct her misappropriation by a single species. It just takes a bit of time.
A few stimulating references… for the weekend.
https://media.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/files/documents/Cattle_2018_1.pdf
https://climateandcapitalism.com/2020/03/11/capitalist-agriculture-and-covid-19-a-deadly-combination/
https://msmagazine.com/2020/08/05/patriarchal-capitalism-and-the-systemic-violence-of-commercial-agriculture/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13507486.2018.1505833
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