During our investigation in Spain at the end of July, traffic was unbelievable. Long traffic jams often dominated the day. Time and again, we saw animal transports trapped in the heat at temperatures well above 30°C. Often, the traffic was so dense that we could not even reach the trucks.
But we managed to get very close to one truck with cattle. We were stuck in the traffic jam alongside it for an hour. The thermometer in our car read 35°C. We considered calling the police to ask them to escort the truck out of the traffic jam. But my colleague Patrick was right: there wasn't even a proper emergency lane. An escort simply wasn't possible.
By the time the truck finally arrived at the slaughterhouse, the temperature had climbed to 37°C. Yet the cattle had to wait for another hour before they were unloaded. The driver did not seem to care. His main concern was the lunch he had missed. The young bulls stood on the truck, parked in the blazing sun, breathing heavily and desperately struggling for air. The hot, ammonia-laden stench of urine and faeces brought tears to our eyes.
And then there was Owen. A young Irish bull with a beautiful white blaze on his face. He was lying on the floor. His face was completely smeared with urine and faeces. He was showing pronounced abdominal breathing. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, his ears pinned back. He seemed to have shut out the world around him—exhausted, overheated, and at the very end of his strength. Owen was born in Ireland. As a young calf, he was transported to Spain to be fattened. Now he will die in a slaughterhouse near Valencia. Before reaching that point, he had already endured two long journeys and unimaginable, unnecessary suffering.
This suffering was entirely avoidable. Animals should only be slaughtered as close as possible to the place where they were raised. There is no justification for transporting sentient beings over long distances for economic gain while exposing them to extreme heat, stress, exhaustion and fear.
Stop live animal transport! Especially those journeys that serve nothing but profit while subjecting animals to completely avoidable and unimaginable suffering before they are killed.
