A PIECE of news about Cape Town, South Africa, caught my eye last week because I can't forget my visit there three decades ago. I saw the wide horizon on the Cape of Good Hope curving on the sides, proving incontestably that the Earth is round. The citizens of the coastal city were in an uproar last week because a terrible foul smell fell upon the city. The concerned authorities traced the stench to a 623-foot-long Kuwaiti cargo ship bearing 19,000 heads of cattle of Brazilian origin en route to Iraq.
The report contained no further details outside the outrage of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals upon seeing the animals none too happily lying on a two-week buildup of their excrement, and they had another two weeks to go. The incident drew public attention to the issue of trading in live animals. It seems it's cheaper to export live animals rather than butchered ones since the latter require refrigeration.
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