TLTP
\nISLAMABAD
\nOf all the millions of tonnes of cargo that\u2019s piled up in the Suez Canal, none is more delicate than the animals crammed into the hulls of several of the ships, as at least 14 vessels stuck in and around the canal could be carrying 92,000 of livestock.
\nBob Bishop, President of the Livestock Exporters Association of the USA, said a US shipment of dairy cattle left the Texas port of Galveston late last year en route to Pakistan via the Suez.
\nAccording to Bishop, another recent shipment of US cattle sailed from the West Coast to Pakistan, avoiding the Suez because of tolls, he said.
\n\u201cAfter this container ship, you might see more and more of that,\u201d he said. He said that mortality rates for livestock are generally no higher at sea than on land, with most ships having a veterinarian.
\nCattle can also be transported by sea, and ships would generally have at least two or three days\u2019 worth of extra hay or feed on board, said Bishop. \u201cIf the feed runs out, they could get more from a port while refuelling. A ship that can\u2019t get to dock could get feed from a barge in what\u2019s known as \u201cmidstream loading\u201d, he said.
\n\u201cIf you\u2019re getting low on feed, I would look at coming into port and putting on extra feed,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cIf I was the owner of the sheep, I would try to find a country that needed sheep,\u201d he said. \u201cThe shorter route would be back to Romania.\u201d
\nWhile much of the waylaid cargo is commodity products such as oil that can be stored on ships for long periods, livestock need food and water, and such deliveries usually carry only enough for a few extra days. That could create a critical situation for ships to find supplies at a local port, or force them to turn around.
\nDislodging the vessel blocking the canal may take at least a week, longer than initially feared, people familiar with the matter said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect just after a two-day delay for a problem to have built up,\u201d said Peter Stevenson, chief policy officer at animal-welfare group Compassion in World Farming, which has called for an end to the live-animal shipments.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s as time goes by that the problems get worse. Occasionally, there are real scandals when things go wrong, but it\u2019s a day-to-day horror.\u201d
\nSeven livestock vessels that were due to arrive at Aqaba on March 21 are stranded near the Suez Canal, Capt George Dahdal, Representative of Jordan Navigation Syndicate, said.
\nVessels that crowd thousands of sheep and longer journeys raise the risk of disease and stress, said Stevenson, of the animal welfare group. Some ships used to transport animals also have been converted from other purposes and aren\u2019t ideally suited, he said. It can be difficult to reverse course after departure because of health rules. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP ISLAMABAD Of all the millions of tonnes of cargo that\u2019s piled up in the Suez Canal, none is more delicate than the animals crammed into the hulls of several of the ships, as at least 14 vessels stuck in and around the canal could be carrying 92,000 of livestock. Bob Bishop, President of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n