Investigation into cattle trucks that leave carcasses on European coasts

Tens of thousands of animals transported in often outdated cargo ships. Livestock raised in Europe and destined for the Middle East and North Africa. France Télévision teams investigated animal abuse on the high seas. The sea sometimes delivers foreign carcasses to European beaches: animal corpses located in Bulgaria, Spain, or even France. On the remains of a sheep in Gibraltar (Spain), the animal’s identification tag was carefully removed.

Cow carcasses were observed on beaches in Brittany between November and December 2023. How did they get there? Data from a maritime traffic monitoring site identified a vessel near the coast a few weeks earlier. It was a livestock carrier transporting animals that it was picking up in Foynes in Ireland. Its logbook confirms that 2,064 cattle were on board when it was loaded on 9 November. There were four fewer on arrival, on 23 November.

While the law allows livestock trucks to dispose of animal carcasses, the Marpol Convention requires that they do so 185 km from the coast. However, the condition of the bodies found seems to indicate that they were dumped close to the shore. This regulation is not the only one that livestock trucks defy.