Our team is in Greece to monitor the transportation of lambs from Romania during high temperatures. For years we have been reporting on overloaded trucks with lambs that have no access to water during transportation, even in the scorching summer heat. The livestock trade takes no vacations, so the animals are not given a break even when temperatures reach record levels.
In a few Member States, transportation in extreme weather conditions is occasionally banned to prevent the massive risks to animal welfare and health. We would have liked this to have been the case in Greece. While the country has indeed banned the transportation of sheep, the reasons for doing so are purely economic and have little to do with animal welfare.
In mid-July, goat plague, also known as peste des petits ruminants, broke out in several regions of Greece. This is a highly contagious viral disease, which in most cases is fatal for the infected animals. Humans cannot become infected. When we heard about the outbreak on the news during our mission, we had already been waiting for the trucks at the border for two days in temperatures of up to 46°C.
It is suspected that the disease was brought in from Romania, the main exporter to the EU. Thousands of sheep, lambs and goats have already been killed to prevent further spread.
The Greek government's main concern is not the suffering caused to the animals, but the economic impact this measure could have on the production of feta cheese. As the disease directly affects the animal species that are the main source of milk for this cheese, a reduction in the number of animals would lead to a reduction in the amount of milk produced and ultimately to a reduction in the production of feta cheese.
We are saddened and embittered to see that only the economic risks are taken seriously in the trade and transportation of animals. We, however, are heartbroken when we think of the unspeakable suffering caused by this contagious disease with its threatening prognosis. Instead of fighting the disease through mass killing, it would be much more effective to take preventive measures, e.g. by drastically reducing the transportation of animals, stricter controls at borders and improved monitoring of animal health.
