Poland | Skarysew | Horse Market and transport of horses for slaughter
[Translate to English:] Pferde mit gefesselten Beinen.
[Translate to English:] Sehr steile und gefährliche Rampe.
[Translate to English:] Gefesselte Pferde.
[Translate to English:] Erschöpfte Stute im Transporter.
[Translate to English:] Begleitfahrt von zwei Tiertransportern bis in die Nähe der slowakischen Grenze.
Our team visits the Skaryszew Horse Market that takes place once per year and hundreds of horses are sold for leisure, breeding and slaughter. We are interested in assessing the transport conditions of the horses to and from the market.
Many horses arrive already on Sunday afternoon and are left in the vehicles until the market opens finally at 11 pm on Sunday and the horses can be unloaded.
We found horses arriving with tethered legs, or covered in sweat, because of inadequate trucks without any ventilation. During unloading we observe many trucks with steep, slippery ramps and horses slip or have to jump from the trucks. Often up to 7 horses are loaded without any partition to guarantee the safety of horses during transport. All these trucks are in violation of the technical rules of the EU Regulation 1/2005, but none of the veterinarians at the market inspects the transport conditions. We notify the Veterinarian of some infringements, but he does not see any problems and refused to act.
At the market are three roofed areas with saw dust bedding, where animals are tethered, but the capacity was not enough for all the horses. Water is available but many horses are left without any food or water at the horse market that only ended Monday at 12 pm.
Our team trails two trucks that leave the market at 2 pm on Monday, even though the loading has been completed hours before. We observed some of the horses in this trailer from their arrival at the market until their arrival near Krosno at 7 pm. They have been without feed and water for a minimum of 29 hours.
We will write to the authorities on different levels and complain about the transport conditions and the lack of enforcement of the relevant legislation at the market.
