SPAIN TO CULL CATTLE AFTER 10-WEEK FREIGHTER ODYSSEY

Some 964 cattle that had been penned up on a freighter on the Mediterranean for two-and-a-half months are to be slaughtered in Spain, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

The animals were supposed to be exported from Spain to Turkey, where they were not allowed to be unloaded because of suspicions of disease.

The freighter Karim Allah returned to the southern Spanish port of Cartagena, where the process of unloading the animals began on Saturday, TV station RTVE reported. The animals were to be culled on-site and the carcasses disposed of, Spanish media reported. During the months at sea, 22 cattle had already died.

The animals could not be sold in Spain because the import of live cattle from outside the European Union (EU) is prohibited, and sanitation authorities objected to transporting them on to a third country, the newspaper El Pais said. A court authorized the emergency slaughter.

The freighter with the cattle on board had left Cartagena on December 18. At their Turkish destination, the cattle were rejected because of suspicions of the non-contagious insect-borne disease, bluetongue, that affects mainly sheep, but also cattle and goats.

The Lebanese-flagged freighter continued to Libya and Tunisia but was turned away. In Sicily, it was allowed to take on food and some water before turning back to Spain. According to RTVE, about 1,800 animals from Spain are currently in a similar situation on the Togo-flagged freighter Elbeik, which was also turned away by Turkey and Libya.

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