Italy | Florence | Inspection of a lamb transport from Poland
The members of the EU Parliament Thomas Waitz, Caroline Roose, and Tilly Metz are convincing themselves of the transport conditions of live animals in Europe.
Our team discusses the found violations with the MEPs who have joint our investigation.
A look into the truck clearly shows that it is way too overcrowded. The ceiling hight is too low for the animals. This is a frequently documented violation.
Today, our team is accompanied by three members of the European Parliament during today's live transport controls: Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz. The three MEP belong to the Green party and are members of the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT). They are joining us to gather information about the live transport conditions in Europe.
At 10:00 p.m. we discover a transport with lambs from Poland near the Italian town of Palmanova. There is not enough headspace in the truck and the lambs are hitting the ceiling with their heads. Not all animals have access to the drinkers. It takes us two hours to find a police station to stop the truck and inspect it for animal welfare violations.
The lambs come from northern Poland and are transported over 1,600 km to an Italian slaughterhouse. The maximum permitted transport time of 29 hours was already exceeded during our inspection and there are still another 260 km ahead of the lambs. The police immediately imposed a fine of 1,333 € on the transport company. Next, our team will send a complaint about the documented violations to the responsible veterinary authority in Poland.