Before Easter Italy imports many sheep from countries such as Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovakia for the tradition of eating lamb. These countries have been recently involved by outbreaks of various animal diseases at farms.
Once we arrive in Trieste and Gorizia we see police at the checkpoints set up for border controls stopping animal transports. We document, astonished, apocalyptic scenes of militiamen in white overalls with tanks on their shoulders pumping disinfectant onto the wheels of the trucks. They bring lambs from Hungary and Slovakia, despite the cases of disease. The Italian government has decided to disinfect the lorries as a precaution unlike Greece, which placed a halt on sheep transports from Romania last summer, due to ovine peste.
We doubt the effectiveness of this measure, also because some transports with lambs are not stopped and disinfected. We are also shocked by these apocalyptic scenarios: animal transports across borders continue despite the spread of diseases as if Covid was not enough. And we are outraged because authorities stop animal transports to disinfect vehicles and do not give any attention to the animals who are inside, to check that there are no violations of so-called animal welfare. There are no veterinarians.
Once again, animals do not count and the regulations established for their so-called protection take the last place after the economic interests of those who sell and buy animals at any cost, including health. But we will continue to document the dystopian contradictions of transporting animals from one country to another, over very long routes and in times of epidemics and pandemics. It is time for stricter regulations to put an end to them.
