We arrive at the Bouvry slaughter plant at 7:45. The pens contain 70 to 100 horses each. Only one pen with shelter is visible in the entire area. Some pens hold large groups of mares and foals of all ages. Some foals have severe nasal discharge, others are coughing continuously. One foal appears to be very sick, either from advanced strangles…

At 8:15 we arrive at Bouvry’s small feedlot on Range Road 264, where it is evident that the holding conditions have not improved since our last visit two years ago. The grounds are covered in manure and muddy. There is still no shelter from the elements and only a limited quantity of straw is visible inside the pen area, by far not enough to…

Our team follows a long-distance transport from the calf market in Château-Gontier, France, to three different farms and an assembly centre in Catalonia, Spain. At the market, some pens are so crowded that only a few calves can lie down and rest. The majority of the pens have straw bedding, but several have no bedding at all and the calves have to…

Our team arrives at 6.10am at the cattle market at Bodzentyn and immediately receives information about a tragic accident that just happened at the market. A trader got injured by a cow that jumped from the truck, certainly in panic and fear from the steep unloading ramp. The ambulance arrived shortly after, but we were informed later that he died…

The mayor of Bodzentyn invited again traders, the vet inspection Kielce, the veterinarian and our team to discuss developments and problems at the market in Bodzentyn. No one participated from the traders. The representatives of the Vetinspection Kielce are doing regular inspections now and started some administrative and legislative procedures…

Poland is a milestone for improving the transport of animals: TSB / AWF organize together with Eyes on Animals a training of WITD in Rzeszow, for we could count on Dr. Alexander Rabitsch. Dr. Rabitsch is an expert on animal transport controls in the European Union. At the one-day theoretical training 28 employees WITD and four official…

Our team visited two farms in Altorricon, Huesca region, in order to find calves that were trailed in July from Germany to Spain. The aim is to document how many of them survived the long distance transport and to see the conditions they are kept in.
Unfortunately we cannot find any of these calves from July, but instead other calves imported from…

The Tierschutzbund Zürich and the Animal Welfare Foundation bring a charge against the control post in Soppe-le-Bas, France, for cruelty to animals. Last April we documented that two downer calves from Poland were loaded by force onto a livestock truck. The calves, which were only a few weeks old, were obviously unfit for transport. They should…

At midday, the calves from Poland and Lithuania are re-loaded at the control post in France. Instead of the mandatory 24 hours, the calves have only been rested for 18 hours. Our team observes that a calf falls down on the loading ramp, remains on the ground and is pulled back into the stable at its tail. Instead of being treated by a veterinarian,…