Today a team from Eyes on Animals and Animal Welfare Foundation spotted a national cattle truck on the roads in Turkey. The cattle were all tied on, bulls and cows mixed. We noticed one cow fall down with her head still attached by the short rope. As the truck was very crowded, she now risked being trampled or strangled. We immediately signalled to the truck driver to stop, which he politely did. After alerting him to the problem, he jumped into the truck via the open roof and loosened her rope. After some struggling he managed to get her up on her feet. Tying on cattle in such crowded conditions, and mixing bulls with cows is bound to cause strangling and injuries. Nevertheless, we were pleased that the truck driver took action. In the long run however the short-distance transport conditions for animals in Turkey needs to be corrected. Later in the week we observed downer cows arrive at Turkish slaughterhouses from having been trampled by the others after falling down. The sad thing is that these injured animals are not euthanized on the truck, but instead dragged out and forced to go through the normal killing process at the slaughterhouses. We will keep our eyes out for this problem and remain in discussion with Turkish officials about enforcement and possible trainings to improve transport there.
