Amid a long-running campaign from an animal-rights group, Brazilian federal Judge Djalma Gomes has banned live cattle export from Brazil’s ports in the name of animal welfare.
Although the verdict can be appealed, the ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the animal rights group, the National Forum for the Protection and Defense of Animals, in 2017 requesting the ban.
According to Reuters, the activist group has called Gomes’ ruling “historic” because it recognized the suffering of animals, likening the activity to human trafficking and slavery.
“Animals are not things. They are sentient living beings, that is, individuals who feel hunger, thirst, pain, cold, anguish, fear,” Gomes wrote in the ruling.
Carlos Favaro, Brazil’s agriculture minister, told Reuters on the sidelines of a beef industry event that he had not spoken with the solicitor general about whether the federal government would appeal the decision. And while court orders must be complied with, the accommodations that animals travel in are adequate and favor the continuation of the cattle’s development.
Brazil primarily exports live cattle to developing countries, including those in the Middle East, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. Last year alone, Brazil’s live cattle exports were valued at about 190 million dollars.
In 2018, Gomes issued a court order granting an injunction to suspend live cattle export from the country after a veterinary report stated that animals being shipped aboard the MV Nada to Turkey were housed in tiny, unhygienic spaces.
The 2018 court order by Gomes reportedly was made, “to prevent the export for slaughter of live animals, from throughout the national territory, until the destination country (Turkey) adopts slaughter practices in line with those of the Brazilian legal system.”
However, the latest decision applies to a national suspension of all cattle from Brazil until export markets could guarantee adequate treatment of livestock.
“We hope that the export of live animals will be definitively banned,” Patrycia Sato, veterinary surgeon and animal welfare coordinator of animal rights group member, said in a statement following the 2018 order. Reports do not indicate whether Sato was the veterinarian who inspected the ship MV Nada.
»Related: New Zealand to discontinue all live animal exports by sea
