On a highway in Italy Animals‘ Angels observes a truck transporting calves destined for Turkey. The animals were loaded in France the previous day. The team decides to follow the transport.
Aside from our motto „to be with the animals“ there is another reason to follow this truck: in its judgement of April 2015 the European Court of Justice has ruled that the requirements relating to watering and feeding intervals and duration of transports and resting periods do not only apply within the EU, but also apply to the part of the transport taking place in a Third Country. By trailing the transport Animals’ Angels wanted to check whether the Court’s judgement was complied with in practice, i.e. whether the transport and resting periods were followed in the Third Country, in this case Turkey. The times stipulated by the relevant legislation are: a maximum of 14 hours of transport – at least 1 hour rest for the animals to be watered – a maximum of 14 hours of transport – at least 24 hours off the truck for rest, watering and feeding – after that the mentioned cycle can start all over again.
The Animals‘ Angels team accompanies the animals on their way through Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania. In Hungary and Bulgaria the animals are unloaded for rest. A second team waits at the external EU-border between Bulgaria and Turkey and takes over the trailing until the place of destination of the animals, which is located in the Asian part of Turkey, at a linear distance of roughly 150 km to the border with Syria. The procedures at the external EU-border alone last for more than 13 hours; customs clearance at Derince (Turkey) requires another 13 hours. With the actual travelling time this adds up to a total transport time of 50 hours during the last transport interval – merely interrupted by an unloading of the animals for only 2 hours. This is a clear infraction of the requirements of the EU Regulation on the protection of animals during transport mentioned above and of the judgement of the European Court of Judgement. Animals’ Angels will file complaints with the EU Commission as well as with the competent authorities of the Member States concerned – regarding this transport and regarding other, similar transports, which were observed during this investigation.
The entire transport route from France to Turkey was more than 4.500 km. All in all the transport took almost one week.
It is unacceptable to expose animals to such stresses and strains, just to fatten them in remote parts of the world and to slaughter them a few months later.
Not only France, but among others also Germany exports many young cattle to Turkey – Animals’ Angels has observed numerous transports with German cattle during this investigation, too.
