DURBAN, South Africa A modern-day Noah's Ark docked in South Africa on Monday bringing 22 giraffes and three rhinos home after 40 days' fruitless sailing around Africa.
There was no dove carrying an olive branch to mark the voyage's end, but animal handlers said they could not find words for their joy as the Michele pulled into Durban harbor at dawn.
"I am relieved, you don't know how relieved I am," Jeff Richmond, co-owner of the animal capture and shipping company Global Wildlife Logistics told Reuters as he watched the ship pull in.
Twenty-two necks protruding from bright yellow containers on the stern drew stares from harbor workers.
A veterinarian said all the animals appeared to be in good health as a giant crane lifted the containers onto dry land.
"That they were kept at sea twice as long as they should have been and that they're back in this condition is a major achievement," veterinarian Charles Van Niekerk told Reuters after examining the animals.
Two of the giraffes had died halfway through the round-Africa odyssey, possibly because they had not adapted to the food on board.
The long journey, an aborted trip to safari parks and zoos in Spain, had been criticized as a violation of international conventions governing the transportation of animals.
"The image of these creatures marooned at sea bears parallels to the ancient Noah's Ark myth. But, more worryingly, it echoes also a more real past when exotic animals were treated as disposable curiosities," The Times newspaper in London said in a commentary.
The animals were captured earlier this year and put on a ship in October for a voyage to Spain.
Reused Because of Disease But while they were at sea, publicity about the return of foot-and-mouth disease to South Africa after an absence of more than 40 years led Spain to refuse to allow the ship inside its territorial waters.
"We were prepared to do whatever they wanted to do and they said no. It's a terrible story," Richmond said, adding that the animals left with all paperwork in order.
Martin Krog, one of two men who agreed to care for the animals on board in return for a free ride to Spain, said the rhinos had taken the trip in stride.
"They got a shower once a day and they just relaxed," he said.
He said the giraffes had become too used to humans and could not be returned to the wild. He said they would have to be sold.
Krog said there was a brief discussion about shooting the animals and dumping their carcasses at sea after Spain refused entry, but he added: "We had become too attached to them ... We would never have let that happen." Instead, the animals were on Monday being loaded into special trucks for a 16-hour drive back to the Bushveld where they were captured nearly three months ago.
There they were to be held while Global Wildlife Logistics and the MSC Shipping Line settle a dispute about the $65,000 freight charge and the estimated $600,000 total cost of the debacle.
Richmond said they probably would be sold to private game ranches or for export.
(Reuter)