Animals‘ Angels follows a truck with early-weaned piglets over 1.700 km from Germany to a slaughterhouse in Spain.
During loading the piglets are very anxious. They scream and move through the truck’s compartments about one another as the truck is so full they can barely move. Inside the narrow and unfamiliar environment it often comes to quarrels between the piglets. It takes 40 minutes until all of them are loaded into the truck: 1.650 piglets distributed to 5 decks. The smallest of them are just 3-4 weeks old and weight no more than 10 kg.
Before the transport drives off to Spain, even more piglets are loaded into the truck at a collecting station in Germany. We escort the animals on their way there. Thanks to a police inspection we are able to see them once more. Most of the piglets are still awake and anxious. Many of them show scratches and bite-marks on their body caused by the frequent quarrels among them. Even though the animals have been on board for only a few hours so far, and still face the whole journey to Spain, the air inside the truck is warm and stifling with a biting smell of Ammonia. Besides, for most of the animals it is impossible to reach the water nipples at the side of the truck.
That in spite of all this these young baby animals are allowed to be transported throughout Europe solely for economical reasons and to be slaughtered in the end, again shows the failure of the EU regulation on animal transport – as well as the member states’ sad prioritization. Despite the multi-million dollar agricultural lobby, we will continue to fight for ending long distance transports.
