We inspect a sale market of lambs in southern Poland and follow a long-distance transport from this sale to a slaughterhouse in Italy. The truck carries 800 lambs, loaded on four decks in crowded conditions and with insufficient headspace. The lambs differ in sizes and ages and most of them are still on a milk diet. The driver makes several breaks…

Every day between 20-30 animal consignments are passing Bulgaria on the way to Turkey, most of the animals need a 24 hours rest in a control post according to Reg. (EC)1/2005. The Bulgarian authorities suddenly closed the Control Post of Royal Haskovo. We have no information about the reasons behind. Presently, only the newly opened control post in…

Today the atmosphere is much calmer. There are only about 70 warm-blooded horses (including ponies) and not too many interested buyers. Many trucks leave empty. We are waiting until the last horse leaves the market. We watch the loading of two small lorries. Both have improper ramps. Moreover, one is overloaded and tows a trailer. The trader loads…

There are by far fewer horses than last year, we count about 250-300. Animals are not so squeezed under the roofed area, but still there is not enough space to keep safe distance between them. Some of the horses standing next to each other try to bite and kick. Again, no one cares about feeding and watering the horses, so the basic needs of many of…

After the luxury of 1.5 hours of sleep we are back on the road with ITD (Road Transport Inspection) officers to check on transports leaving the Skaryszew horse market. We witness cases of too big animals transported in too small lorries, trailers in bad technical condition and problematic international transport that leaves the market without…

Our Eyes on Animals and TSB|AWF team is visiting the annual horse market in Skaryszew. It takes place once a year and hundreds of horses are sold for leisure, breeding, work and slaughter. We want to check if the transport conditions and facilities for the horses at the market have changed since last year, and if our suggestions were implemented.

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As part of our team spends the night inspecting the horse market itself, the other part of the team joins Road Transport Inspectors (ITD) to inspect night transports of horses to the market. Some vehicles have already arrived and are arranged in a long line-up for veterinary inspection. Some are still on the way. Through the night, ITD inspectors…

In February our FAS team in Poland visited 24 farms. Some are visited regularly by our farriers. They trimmed hooves of 12 horses, 4 foals and claws of 1 cow. Several horses required treatment because of cracked heels, tinea or abscess in hooves. Michal and Bogdan noticed the positive effects of their trainings with farmers who were taught how to…

On rainy Thursday morning, we are arriving in the office of ITD (Road Transport Inspection) to give a theoretical training on Regulation (EC) 1/2005. Our audience consists of Road Transport Inspectors and Veterinary Inspectors from the whole region. We witness some lively discussions and sense some frustration in cases where law is not perfect…