Forty-seven breeding heifers from Romania were stuck at the EU/Turkish border since 18 October. Despite Animals‘ Angels & AWF doing their very best by repeatedly contacting the EU and Turkish authorities, plus the buyer, seller and transporter, these animals were left for 2 weeks in No Man’s Land while conditions for them on board got worse and worse. In total 6 cattle died and the rest suffered badly.
Asalet & Jack from Eyes on Animals flew to Turkey on November 1st in the hope that by being physically present and negotiating live in Turkish they could help the animals and driver. The Bulgarian/EU authorities refused to take these animals back and the Turkish thus decided all must be killed nearby. On November 2nd all surviving cattle were killed in a nearby Turkish slaughterhouse. Asalet from EonA spoke to the slaughterhouse owner and asked if the animals could at least be rendered unconscious with our captive bolt stunner before having their throats cut. Asalet explained how it worked and offered to assist in making the slaughter of these animals less frightening and painful, but the owner of the plant said he was unable to grant him permission to observe the slaughter of these Romanian heifers nor to stun the animals first. Sadly, all died in vain, after 2 weeks of extreme stress- stuck on board without any space to move, filthy build up of manure and stinky ammonia inside the truck, and insufficient water and food.
This is not an incident, earlier this fall heavily pregnant German heifers were also left for a whole month stuck on board a truck inside the border, with many of them giving birth and dying. Last time it was due to the animals coming from a Bluetongue zone in Germany and this time the cattle were coming from a zone in Romania that had had an outbreak of Peste des petits ruminants virus in August.
Why the EU & Turkey continue to have such horrible communication problems and abandon animals inside this border crossing is beyond reason. EonA, AA and AWF will continue fighting to end this risky and irresponsible live trade of sentient beings.
