“We put the animals on the ship. The importer paid, and hired the ship. After that, the operation was in his hands,” Fernando Fernández, director of the Uruguayan company Ganosan Livestock, said on Monday in the radio program Valor Agregado.
He added that the responsibility for the long delay was with the Turkish importer.
On September 19, the livestock ship Spiridon II left Uruguay for Turkey with 3,000 cows, almost half of them pregnant.
When the ship arrived on October 20, Turkish authorities refused to accept the animals. By that time, the cows had already been at sea for more than a month. Forty-eight cows had died, and calves had been born on board, more than half of the newborn calves died.
The animals were stuck at sea on an old ship with no place to go. The animal-welfare organization Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) was the first to raise the alarm about what was happening.
“These vessels are not prepared to transport animals. And these animals have already been on this vessel for too many days,” veterinarian Maria Boada told The Animal Reader on November 11.
Spiridon II: 63 days at sea, hundreds of cows dead
A horrible two weeks followed, with people around the world asking authorities to release the animals and end their suffering.
After false signals suggesting the ship was going back to Montevideo, animal-welfare organizations and journalists waited at the Strait of Gibraltar. But the ship turned off its signal and later reappeared in Libya.
By then, the cows had been at sea for 63 days.
Veterinarian Lynn Simpson, who has worked on many livestock ships, explained what conditions inside these vessels look like: “Inside, these ships are like multi-story car parks. Some have up to 16 decks. Spiridon II has about seven. Many are below the waterline. The animals on the lower decks don’t see any natural light for the entire journey.”
AWF estimates that 2,700 cows were unloaded in Libya. If this number is correct, it means around 300 cows died at sea.
The organization is still trying to verify whether all animals were taken off the ship. AWF called this case one of the worst animal-welfare violations in recent years.
After unloading in Libya, the Spiridon II continued sailing and has now entered the port of Beirut, Lebanon.
Fernández blames Turkish importer
According to Fernando Fernández, director of the Uruguayan exporter Ganosan, the Turkish importer is responsible for the long delay.
Fernández said that when Turkey refused the animals, the importer asked for urgent papers to send the cows to Morocco. However, the ship never arrived there. Last Friday, Fernández saw that the ship had stopped near the Libyan coast.
He said all cows were healthy when they left Uruguay and had been selected and approved by Turkish buyers and the Turkish ministry.
“We sold FOB. We put the cattle on the ship, the man paid, the man contracted the ship, the ship left, and that’s where our business ended,” Fernández said.
“The importer could not solve the problems in Turkey, and it became complicated for him.”
Ganosan says it plans to continue exporting animals and has shared all documents with the Uruguayan ministry.
Live animal export in Uruguay
In Uruguay, the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Alfredo Fratti, is the government authority responsible for approving live-export shipments, issuing export licenses, overseeing animal-welfare compliance, and ensuring transparency and traceability of farm animals.
This means that, although exporters and importers play a role, the core responsibility for allowing and supervising live animal exports lies with the Uruguayan government.
Fratti, a veterinarian and well-known Uruguayan politician who took office in March 2025, is now responsible for reviewing how cases like the Spiridon II were handled.
Uruguay sends 7,000 cows to Turkey
While the Spiridon II was still at sea, Minister Alfredo Fratti approved a new shipment of 7,000 cows to Turkey.
The livestock ship Atlantic Rose left Uruguay on November 20 and is expected to arrive on December 10.
Three other live animal shipments to Spain, Morocco and Israel were approved in November.
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