For the past two days we have held joint inspections with the official Road Transport Inspectors of livestock trucks. All animal transports stopped on the road to be inspected had severe violations of the animal-welfare-during-transport law. The first had tall adult cattle loaded on both decks of a lorry, reaching 4.33m of height (maximum allowed is 4m), and still not providing enough headspace for the animals. The second transporter had tied cattle on by the horns, mixed horned cattle with hornless ones, and the lorry also exceeded 4m of height. The third transport company stopped had loaded a downer cow (thus unfit for transport and in a state of suffering), mixed her with a bull and without any partition on board. To make matters worse, both were tied on by their horns. The fourth truck had squeezed 5 adult cows weighing about 500kg each, on a Mercedes Sprinter with max loading capacity of 1.1 tons. The animals were completely overcrowded. Aside from obvious animal welfare violations, the overloading made the vehicle dangerous to others on the road. The driver had to call a larger truck and reload the animals. All transporters received serious fines. Relevant veterinary authorities will be notified.We will not stop this type of work until transport companies and exporters respect the welfare laws.
