Live export trade

I was a seafarer for 30 years and sailed all around the world.

Six years ago I sailed as Stockman on the Ocean Drover, a live animal export ship from Napier.

That is something I would never agree to do again. This is not just for the fact that I saw the trade was terribly inhumane to the animals.

In my experience as a seafarer, I thought the ship was unfit for sea.

Like the Gulf Livestock 1, the Ocean Drover had engine failure for 24 hours in the Sea of Japan.

I dread to think what would have happened to the Ocean Drover and 10,500 heifers in calf if we had been hit by a typhoon.

A few months later in the port of Fremantle the Ocean Drover caught on fire. I believe that if workers’ rights to good union protection had not been stripped by various governments, the NZ Maritime Unions would not have let the ship leave port.

I imagine the same would have applied to the Gulf Livestock 1.

These ships are not new ships but are converted from old retired vessels, most likely purchased at scrap value, then registered under a flag of convenience which allows lower skilled cheap labour who are too scared to speak up about safety for fear of being sacked.

In my opinion, ships like these are all potential death ships put to sea with only profit in mind. I had a choice to walk up the gangway on the Ocean Drover just as the 43 seafarers on board the Gulf Livestock 1. The heifers in calf had no choice.

Just for a minute imagine if you can what sort of death these poor animals had. Knowing what I know now this Live Export Trade has to be BANNED in New Zealand.

Steve Ellis Waipukurau