Regards Mark:

I have been doing a little research this morning re ‘Julia AK’ – the live animal export ship which is having problems at Spanish ports whilst sailing with cattle between Brazil and Turkey.  Scroll down the site home page to see more recent posts of the problems.

I have just been looking into the past history of this vessel.  Here is what I found.

In 2008 the ship was called the ‘Lady Dya’; this is a picture of the same ship when it was taken around that time.  Image credit Mahmoud Shd.

Here below is a more recent picture of the ship, now ‘Julia AK’,  in Rio, Brazil.  Photo – Edson de Lima Lucas. 

So in the more recent years (2010 onwards) did it undergo modifications to be the livestock carrier we presently see.  Physical modifications can be seen by comparing the 2 pictures here.  It is very common for current livestock carrying vessels to have started their earlier sailing days as completely different tanker or cargo type ships; the ‘Julia AK’ conversion is very common of the changes undertaken.