The slaughter of nearly 900 cattle that have been stuck on a cargo ship in the Mediterranean for two months has been postponed until Thursday.

Lawyers for the owners of the "Karim Allah" vessel delayed the process by requesting an official document authorizing the cull.

The slaughter was deemed necessary after Spanish veterinarians said the animals were no longer fit for export.

But the owners argued that the cows' ailments are treatable and they should be allowed to be transported to a place they can recover.

Responding to the plight of the cattle, rights groups on Tuesday reiterated their calls for the transport of live animals to come to an end.

Activist Amparo Marín on Tuesday called on the European Union to prohibit "these trips of terror" immediately.

Marín said the case had exposed "all the dirty laundry" about live animal transports not adhering to ruled on animal welfare regulations.

The ship set sail from the Spanish port of Cartagena on 18 December, carrying a total of 895 cattle destined for export to Turkey.

Turkish port authorities, however, refused to let them disembark, reportedly due to suspicions about their health.

After a second failed attempt to unload the cattle in Libya, the boat returned to Cartagena, where Spanish authorities ordered it to dock.

After an official inspection by government veterinarians, Spain's minister of agriculture said animals were to be killed.

Veterinarians judged them to be both unfit either for transport to another country or for their return to Spain.

Share:
More In Business
Apple Overtakes Samsung as Top Seller of Smartphones
Dan Ives, Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Wedbush Securities dives deeper into a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) that Apple has ended Samsung's 12-year reign as the world's largest smartphone seller.
AI is the Big Opportunity and the Risk to Watch at Davos
Artificial intelligence is the biggest buzzword at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. Advances in generative AI stunned the world last year, and the elite crowd is angling to take advantage of its promise and minimize its risks.
A Smarter Smart Phone?
Smartphones could get much smarter this year as the next wave of artificial intelligence seeps into the devices that accompany people almost everywhere they go.
Who Could Be The World's First Trillionaire?
In an annual assessment of global inequalities, Oxfam International said the first trillionaire could emerge within the next decade — as the anti-poverty organization pointed to the growing wealth gap that skyrocketed globally during the pandemic.
Load More