This afternoon the team from EonA/AWF spotted a sheep truck on the national roads east of Istanbul. The truck headed to a livestock market in Tuzla where we observed the unloading of the animals. The sheep were loaded on two levels. The bottom level had very little ventilation as the sides of the truck were almost completely closed. The transport journey must have been short as the animals seemed in good condition. There was plenty of sand bedding. At the beginning the drivers and market personnel used a trained sheep to enter the truck and encourage the sheep on the first level to come off (see photo above). This worked quite well. Then the men opened the back door of the upper floor and installed a mobile ramp. It was very steep and did not have any lateral protection. The men used some force to get the sheep from the upper floor to walk down this difficult ramp. One sheep was grabbed by her wool and pushed down the ramp. Despite the poor unloading equipment, the sheep all managed to walk off. It is fortunate that none of the sheep on board had leg injuries… We will use the photos in the future to explain to the Turkish officials and law enforcers how an unloading ramp should be built to better guarantee the safety of the animals being unloaded.
