Thousands of animals aboard waiting ships are on the verge of dying as traffic is blocked on the Suez Canal in Egypt.



CNN broadcast reported on the 27th (local time), citing ship operation information site'Marine Traffic', that there are 13 ships carrying livestock and waiting for canal traffic to resume.



The Bloomberg News reported that there were a maximum of 14 such ships, and the Daily Guardian in the UK said it was a maximum of 20, adding 11 that were identified by the animal rights group to the 9 that were self-identified.



It is believed that most of the ships trying to cross the Suez Canal carrying livestock were traveling from Europe to the Middle East.



Bloomberg explained that the number of ships waiting near the canal were going from Romania to Saudi Arabia, and Romanian authorities said today that 11 livestock export ships were affected by the crisis.



Saudi Arabia, the world's largest sheep importer, imports live sheep from Romania and slaughter them in the Islamic way.



In Islam, only meat slaughtered according to the Islamic slaughter method'Dabiha' is recognized as halal (a product permitted to be eaten and used by Muslims).



The problem is that most ships don't carry enough food and water.



"There are ships that run out of water and feed within two days," said Gabriel Faun, European director of the non-governmental organization Animal International.



He added that some ships have more than six days' worth of feed and water. "If you decide to go back to Romania, you still have a chance, but if the canal is blocked for another two to six days, disaster will happen."



Some view that shipping livestock by boat is itself a problem.



Peter Stephenson of Animal Welfare Group'Compassion in World Farming' said that the long-term transport of thousands of livestock packed in ships puts stress on livestock and increases the risk of disease. "It's not even perfectly suited for transportation."



However, in the livestock export industry, veterinarians are on board each ship, claiming that marine transport does not have a higher animal mortality rate than land transport.



Suez Canal was blocked for five days due to the aground of the large container ship Ever Given.