Animals‘ Angels is on the road for unweaned calves again. We follow a German truck transporting ‘milk’ calves from Lithuania to Spain.
We call the police as the truck is neither equipped with a suitable drinking device nor carries along the necessary milk powder that has to be supplied to the animals during the mandatory rest after nine hours of travel. The police officers inspect the transport and record all infringements they find. Additionally, the drivers have to change two tires. The calves bleat of hunger and bite into the truck’s side-rails. As there is no veterinarian available for inspecting the animals, the officers permit the truck to drive on to a supply station 500 km away. This is where the transporter has planned to take the mandatory rest after 19 hours of travel. After the break in Germany the truck drives on to Spain. Also during this part of the journey the calves will not be supplied with milk powder and thus remain hungry.
Calf transports constitute a violation of EU regulation 01/2005 and therefore the competent authorities should not approve them at the point of departure in case they are not equipped with a suitable drinking device. Animals’ Angels advocates for an EU-wide ban of long distance transports of ‘milk’ calves. For 10 years we have been documenting these transports and we have never seen a single transport being equipped with a suitable drinking device to properly supply for the animals.
