Animals' Angels follows a transport with Spanish sheep to Italy. The ewes that have been 'discarded from production' are to be killed in a slaughterhouse in the province of Aquila. We meet them at the Spanish-French border.
At this time the animals are still travelling more than 1,250 km - despite the hot summer temperatures of more than 31 °C. Already at the first look into the truck we notice that the partly unshorn animals are standing very close together on the transporter. This makes it impossible for all of them to reach the one-sided water troughs. In addition, they cannot all lie down and rest at the same time. Also the bedding is not sufficient or is missing in some places. The sheep partly stand on the bare metal floor.
Around 23 o'clock at night they reach the French-Italian border. From there another Animals' Angels team takes over and organises a police check. The highway patrol actually arrives immediately and stops the truck. Over an hour and a half, the drivers and the truck are checked for valid papers. Unfortunately, however, the police lack the experience to check animal transports in regards to EU regulation. They don't even call the responsible official veterinarian - on the grounds that he won't come anyway. Meanwhile we see Maila, Eva and the other 317 sheep. We look into tired and exhausted eyes. Many of the sheep suffer from strong nasal discharge, breathe heavily and cough.
For us it is incomprehensible and absolutely inexplicable that the lorry can continue without consequences. So the next morning we go to see the chief of the responsible motorway police in the region and report on the disappointing events of last night. We hope that this will once again sensitise the department to the issue of animal transport.
Of course, we are also submitting complaints to the competent authorities and ministries in Spain and Italy.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
