Nearly 3,000 cows—many of them pregnant—have been trapped on a cargo ship for over two months, drifting in the Mediterranean Sea with nowhere to go.

Denied entry by Turkish authorities due to missing or mismatched paperwork, the animals aboard the Spiridon II have endured unimaginable suffering: extreme heat, starvation, disease, and death.

At least 58 cows have already died. Over 140 calves have been born onboard, and more than half are unaccounted for.

Now, the ship has been ordered to return to Uruguay, condemning the surviving animals to another month of suffering in the same inhumane conditions. This is not just a disaster. It’s a horrifying reflection of what long-distance live animal export truly is: a global system built on cruelty.

The cows aboard the Spiridon II have become pawns in a bureaucratic nightmare between Uruguay and Turkey, and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) has failed to intervene.

We demand immediate action.

We are calling on:

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH)
The governments of Uruguay and Turkey
The European Union’s Agriculture and Animal Welfare Commission
To:

• Immediately intervene to secure a safe and humane port for the cows aboard the Spiridon II.
• Ensure urgent veterinary assistance, food, and water is delivered to the animals before more die.
• Launch a full investigation into how this disaster was allowed to happen.
• Ban the long-distance live export of animals, especially pregnant livestock and newborns, and move toward ending the live export trade globally.

Every hour these cows remain trapped is an hour of preventable suffering. No more animals should die alone in the dark, at sea, with no one to help them.

Sign this petition to demand emergency action and end this nightmare now.