Egyptian officials slaughtered 30,000 baby cows stranded aboard a ship in the Red Sea port of Sokhna for six weeks, officials said. The animals\' plight generated international headlines earlier this month and 25,000 people signed an online petition urging government officials to set the animals free. Animal rights groups said the calves were being held in \"horrendous and inhumane\" conditions, bikyamasr.com reported. Egyptian agricultural officials said they had discovered \"hormonal capsules\" in the animals, necessitating the slaughter. Tests in the weeks prior to the slaughter from an Egyptian lab were inconclusive as to whether the calves were injected with a carcinogen prior to their transport from South America. Bikyamasr said the ship had been prevented from docking at several other ports prior to setting down anchor in the Red Sea, creating what advocates called one of the worst animal welfare crises in years.