‘Smell of cattle carrier ship in CT shows terrible conditions animals endure’ - NSPCA
Residents of Cape Town awoke to a terrible smell coming from a cattle carrier in the harbour.
The NSPCA said it was alerted to a vessel called the Al Kuwait carrying about 19,000 cattle that was travelling from Brazil to the Cape Town harbour to load food for animals onboard on 19 Feberuay 2024. Picture: Supplied/NSPCA
John Maytham speaks to NSPCA COO Grace De Lange.
Listen to the interview in the audio below.
The unpleasant stench permeating Cape Town's air was initially thought to be a problem with the Koeberg sewage plant.
However, investigations revealed that it came from a ship, the Al Kuwait, carrying 19,000 cattle bound for Iraq from Brazil.
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The vessel stopped in Cape Town to load feed and is scheduled to leave on Monday night.
The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) dispatched a team to inspect the welfare of the animals on board.
De Lange says the smell is just an indication of the horrendous conditions that the animals are kept in on board.
“The build-up of faeces, the ammonia… the animals have to face this on livestock vessels every day.”
- Grace De Lange, NSPCA COO
She says the conditions were so terrible that they had to euthanise some of the animals because of the condition they were in, on the advice of a veterinarian.
De Lange says that the NSPCA are attempting to ban the export of live animals to the Middle East to prevent these kinds of situations.
