More than 35 animal rights organisations have submitted a joint letter calling on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to implement stricter regulations that apply to livestock carriers.
The letter addressed to IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez was submitted in the wake of an incident last month wherein a ship carrying around 3,000 cows was prohibited from docking in Turkey, which then resulted in the deaths of many of the animals on board.
The groups said in the letter that the global live export fleet is ageing, with an average age of 40 years. The ships are also becoming unsafe for both their crews and the animals they transport due to a variety of reasons such as overcrowding, poor construction, and inadequate ventilation and sanitation facilities.
A number of the vessels, along with their crews and live cargo, have even been lost at sea in recent years, the organisations said.
The groups have now called on the IMO to draft more stringent international regulations covering ship design, stability, crew and animal welfare, and management of onboard waste to address the identified issues.
