[Tragic] Dead Cows Decomposing in a Sunken Ship
4400 dead cows are decomposing in a sunken ship in the Brazilian river.
| Incident | : Vessel Sinks with 4900 cows |
| Location | : River port of Vila do Conde in the Amazon region of northern Brazil. |
| Casualties | : 4400 cows dead |
| Pollution | : 2 million gallons of fuel spill |
A ship, carrying 4900 live cows, en route to Venezuela, sank at the river port of Vila do Conde. Almost 4400 cows drowned along with the ship. Of the 500 escaped from drowning, only 100 survived.
The vessel was also carrying nearly 2 million gallons of fuel. The works are in progress to remove the fuel before the carcasses are removed.
The families in the region have loaded some carcasses onto the trucks for their personal use of meat while other carcasses are lying on the sand shore. The authorities have removed the carcasses in the local beaches but do not know how to remove the dead cows lying along with the ship below the river surface.
The lives of fishermen along the beaches are in danger because of the smell of the decomposing carcasses. Their drinking water and fishing grounds could be polluted. The estimated cost of this environmental disaster is at a minimum of $30 million while the real assessment of the environmental impact is underway.
The live cows belong to Minerva Foods, who met with such accident in 2012. It is common practice in Brazil to export live cattle. Ministry of Agriculture reports that the country has exported 646,700 live cattle valued $675 million last year.
Source: Mother Jones
