An Animals' Angels team inspects the transport of lambs, sheep and goats from the Greek islands to slaughterhouses on the mainland. The conditions and transport times are appalling: the animals are collected from the farms in simple pick-up trucks and taken to a collection point. There, workers grab them by their horns, hides or legs and drag them onto two larger vehicles - loading takes hours.
The transports are then taken to the port. There they board the ferry to Athens, a journey that takes 12 hours. Once there, the animals are kept on the trucks for 36 hours. To make matters worse, the trucks have no drinking troughs as they are not designed or approved for long journeys. As a result, the animals go more than two days without a drop of water before reaching their destination. They are also cramped inside, with no place to rest or lie down. Urine drips from the upper floors onto the animals' heads and collects on the floor as there is no bedding in the vehicle. Under these unspeakable conditions, the transports continue from Athens to a slaughterhouse on the other side of Greece.
Every year we bring the serious abuses of animal transport in Greece to the attention of the authorities - and the ferry journeys compound these abuses. Animals are often confined to trucks for days without water, food or the chance to rest. Despite this, the veterinary authorities still do not carry out adequate inspections (including of vehicles). Our report will also inform the EU Commission of the continuing lack of animal welfare controls in Greece.
