A spokesperson for the company, which shipped nearly 400,000 cattle in 2019, said: “The old converted vessels bring the standard of the whole industry down. Livestock Express managing director Paul Pistorius warned that converting old vessels into livestock carriers means making “compromises”. Animal health and welfare concernsThe practice of transporting thousands of live animals (some ships carry more than 10,000 animals) across the sea for weeks at a time means attention must be paid to the welfare of animals. They [the animals] have to eat, sleep, drink and recover.”“The live animal trade is not one where great fortunes are made. “They are old vessels that are converted to transport animals,” Francesca Porta from Eurogroup for Animals in Brussels told the New York Times.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2020 09:56 UTC