TURKISH ANIMAL WELFARE DISASTER

According to Maritime Executive, residents are complaining of odors, and animal rights groups are protesting about the welfare of stranded cattle, as Turkish officials continue to deny the offloading of a livestock carrier for more than two weeks.
The 52yo Spiridon II loaded 2,901 cattle in Uruguay, departing on September 19. According to reports in the Turkish media, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry inspected the cattle when the vessel arrived, but denied permission to land the animals because approximately 500 of the ear tags did not match documentation on the ship.
This is of enormous concern. Based on 2901 cattle, probably around 350kg (based on number and possible loading weight), then a minimum of 20MT of food would be required daily to meet ASEL's bare minimum of 2% BWT/head/day. This calculates to at least 720 MT for 36 days (34 day voyage with 2 days discharge) or 1020 MT for 51 days. Given the size of the ship, most fodder will be carried as deck cargo so there is no possibility of carrying 1020 MT on this ship (1000MT stored on deck would have stability concerns).
These are all complex calculations (done for feeder cattle and not growing dairy heifers, which would be worse again) but the bottom line is
a) these cattle will likely have been hungry ever since leaving Uruguay  and
b) there will be little if any fodder on board now.
On top of government rejection, no importer is going to want cattle which will have irreversible changes to rumen flora after having  little or no feed for 17 days.
Turkish officials should act immediately to rescue and/or euthanase these animals. This is a total tragedy, again highlighting the inherently risky nature of live ex.