Brazilian court bans export of live cattle: ‘Animals are not things’

Animal rights groups have been gaining momentum in the courtrooms. As a long time campaign continues for animal rights and humane treatment, a Brazilian federal court has banned the export of live cattle from the country. On Thursday, federal judge Djalma Gomes, announced the decision which bans cattle exports at Brazilian ports.

The decision to ban live cattle export has also taken effect in New Zealand.

According to Reuters, the country’s live cattle exports are sold to developing countries, especially in the Middle East including Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.

In 2017, the Brazilian animal welfare NGO – the National Forum for the Protection and Defense of Animals, filed a lawsuit to stop live cattle exports. Brazil is the fifth largest exporter of live cattle in the world, exporting about 150,000 animals in 2022 according to the USDA records.

Complaints centered on animal cruelty charges relating to their transport after a veterinary report stated cattle had been shipped in tiny, unhygienic spaces and other inhumane conditions as well as inhumane slaughter practices.

Animals are not things. They are sentient living beings, that is, individuals who feel hunger, thirst, pain, cold, anguish, fear.

Judge Gomez

Animal rights groups have called the judge’s decision “historic” for recognizing “the suffering caused to animals … in an activity similar to human trafficking at the time of slavery.”

Carlos Favaro, Brazil’s agriculture minister, defended Brazil’s live cattle trade contending that buyers would not invest in livestock that would lose weight while in transit, and insisted the “accommodations” cattle travel in is adequate and “favor” the continuation of the cattle’s development.

It is not known if the verdict will be appealed. The ban can not take effect until judgment in a higher federal court has power as well as the power to intervene.

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