Our team is on an investigation together with our partner organisations Welfarm and Animals International in the Spanish port of Cartagena. In 2018, an audit carried out by the EU Commission discovered various animal welfare violations during the loading of animals from trucks onto ships in various EU export ports. Cartagena belongs to these ports.…

Due to extreme summer heat, Romania and Hungary have banned animal transport by truck to Turkey for a couple of weeks. Now the exporters are changing their strategy and switching to ships and are still transporting the animals by sea to Turkey, and even further to the Middle East in unspeakable heat.

Together with our partner organization Israel…

This month our team returns to the cattle market in Lago to ensure that the welfare of the animals being sold at the market is respected. Both animal markets in Lagow and Bodzentyn re-opened recently after the imposed restrictions related to COVID-19 were released.

The number of cattle present at the markets is very low. During our inspection…

Our team is investigating fattening farms in the Spanish region of Lleida. This is also where unweaned calves from Germany are transported. After six to ten months of fattening, these calves are exported to countries outside European Union by sea. 

On the first investigation day we spot a calf outside the fattening farm pen. The calf is lying in…

Our team is investigating in the Spanish export harbour Tarragona. We are accompanied by a journalist. Together we want to collect information about live export by sea from Spain. 

Currently, animals are loaded on export ships in Tarragona almost on a daily basis. The demand for live animals from the Middle East is very high at the moment because…

Poland is gradually lifting some of the national restrictions related to COVID-19. Therefore, the town of Bodzentyn allows animal markets to re-open. Our team can now continue with their market inspections to ensure that the welfare of the animals at the market is respected. Obligations to keep social distance at least at two meters are still in…

Together with our partner organisation, Israel Against Live Shipments (IALS), we are documenting the export of Hungarian lambs to Israel. Our team finds out that on March 31, 2020 the Hungarian lambs will first be transported by truck to the Slovenian port of Koper.

In this port, the animals, which are between four and five months, are…

This month, the work for our Farm Animal Service (FAS) team starts on a farm in Lomno. A mare on this farm is limping. We are inspection her hooves and find a hematoma. We disinfect and protect the wound with a spray. We will come back to trim the hooves after the wound healed.

Our next visit is on a farm in Nowy Jawor. We want to check whether…

To be clear: The EU-Commission and the member states cannot ignore their duties. They are responsible for the ongoing live exports by sea. However, they are not taking any actions against these transports. Maybe because they think that no one is aware of these transports?