
Rescuers race to save 14k sheep on capsized cargo ship - phissk
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50538592
======
scandox
An elderly German man told me a story. He was some kind of trade
representative in Yemen, based in the Port city of Aden. New Zealand (I think)
and Yemen had recently concluded a trade deal for live sheep. The first
shipment was to be met with some minor fanfare and a horde of diplomats, trade
delegates, minor politicians etc were massed at the docks watching the ship
come in.

He says that at a certain point there were a huge flock of sheep on the deck
of the vessel and that they suddenly seemed to panic and started leaping into
the water. As they did so, sharks in the water started attacking them.
Everyone on the docks simply watched as the sheep kept flowing into a blood
red sea.

I wish I remembered the details more precisely, because the story certainly
requires bolstering with credible detail. He was a well respected person from
what I could make out, so I believed him - at the time anyway.

~~~
toun
Maybe he was refering to Panurge's sheeps ..
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panurge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panurge))

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growlist
Live shipping should be banned.

~~~
ruthless_banker
How is shipping different than truck or train.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Generally the journeys are much longer and in poorer conditions, with a lot
less oversight.

Live shipping of sheep and beef out of Australia and New Zealand, especially
to the Middle East, has been very controversial and banned on and off
depending on the economy and political flavour of the month. It's a long, hot,
hard journey, across the equator into the Middle East. There's no oversight on
the ships, they get transported in horrible conditions, and the countries
they're shipping the animals to don't have a great track record on animal
cruelty.

Here's a case where 2,400 sheep died from heat stress on a voyage from
Australia the Middle East: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2019/jul/31/live-...](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2019/jul/31/live-exporter-charged-with-sheep-cruelty-over-deadly-awassi-
shipment)

That's not an isolated incident either. It's endemic to live shipping. The
whole reason they're doing it is because they want to maximise profits by
shipping them live and slaughtering them in countries where it's cheaper,
rather than using Australian abattoirs and shipping frozen carcasses or cuts.

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IceCreamGondola
Without knowing the in's and out's of supply and demand this really raises the
question as to why 14,000 sheep needed to be transported. Our reliance on
global markets for our produce is out of hand (probably preaching to the
converted here).

~~~
Ensorceled
If not for global markets, my fresh fruit and vegetable selection would be
VERY limited. As a kid, I had mostly root vegetables and apples from October
until spring.

~~~
k_sze
I have always wondered if _we_ , as a species, are the problem. Maybe we’re
really not supposed to spread and colonize every part of Earth. Maybe we’re
supposed to stay within much narrower areas where the local produce is good
enough.

Not sure if I’m making sense.

~~~
Ensorceled
That's a very religious point of view. We are the problem, but only in that
we're THE apex predator and we can't seem to figure out a way to control our
worst consumption impulses.

One thing that struck me about a childhood visit to "St. Marie amongst the
Hurons"[1] was that the Hurons would "use up" a place and simply abandon their
longhouses and maize fields and move to a place with better hunting. Sometimes
they would return a few years later to that same place after the prey
populations had a chance to recover.

The echos of this world view is what freaks me out about people like Musk
saying we need to get off Earth.

[1]
[http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/sm/en/Home/index....](http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/sm/en/Home/index.htm)

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raducu
"It is not yet known what caused the ship, which was bound for Saudi Arabia,
to capsize"

The romanian newspapers initially reported that the sheep were simply not
loaded on both sides of the ship.

~~~
toomanybeersies
The front fell off:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM)

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ddmma
Sheeps on the ship. Terrible story. But it’s similar to liquid transportation
not having proper organisation can unbalance the forces.

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xvx
Modern day slave ships. I’m sure the sheep are insured and it’s more
profitable to leave them to drown.

~~~
andrewjrhill
Are you trolling or do you genuinely believe the trade and transport of
livestock is the same as human slavery? The mind boggles.

~~~
randomsearch
I’m undecided on this topic, but it’s an interesting test of imagination as to
whether you could envisage animals before afforded the same rights as humans
in the future. Certainly the direction of travel strengthens that proposition,
and contemporary attitudes to slavery show just how wrong you can be simply by
relying on the ethics in vogue during your lifetime.

