The team of Viva! Interwencje, on behalf of Animals’ Angels, inspects a horse market in Pajęczno, central Poland. There are approximately 500 horses for sale, tethered short to trucks and bars. No watering is seen, even though the temperature exceeds 25 ºC. The handling of the animals is in many cases very violent, mostly because of the huge amounts of alcohol consumed by the farmers, who also pick fights between one another.
The veterinarians do their best to discipline the drunken farmers, but they only hear insults and threats in return and receive no help from the police officers who are also present at the market. The team witnesses a number of situations in which the policemen remain indifferent to the requests for intervention from the veterinarians. The veterinary service personnel openly admit that their powers are very limited and they are grateful that we are there too.
The team witnesses and documents several cases of violent loading of horses up the steep ramps of rickety and unsuitable trucks, as well as overloading the trucks or even using regular cargo trucks for horse transport. Most of the horses are destined for slaughter.
The only conclusion might be again that there is no one being really in control of what happens at these animal markets and therefore, the only solution would be a full ban on the sale of animals at such places.
The mayor of Pajęczno will be notified of all the observed violations. We would like to express our respect for the veterinarians supervising Pajęczno market, for doing their best for these horses.
