A very special time for the TSB|AWF and EonA team in the north of Poland. We are giving a training course to the highway police for the first time in Poland, and taking the opportunity to do a joint inspection with the Road Transport Inspection (ITD) there, who completed our training already in November 2016. The official Veterinary Inspectors are also involved. Durning the practical part of our training course, many different types of livestock trucks were stopped. Unfortunately many were in violation of the European animal-welfare-during-transport legislation: a small truck of 3.5 tonnes with 5 adult bovines squeezed in the limited compartment and cows mixed on board with bulls, the animals were tied on by the horns by extremely short ropes, and the condition of the vehicle itself posed a risk of injury. We also stopped a truck carrying four boars to a slaughterhouse, two of them obviously dragged onto the vehicle because they were downers, unable to get up and walk. We saw a severly overloaded pig ttruck with 80 pigs on two decks, stressed and fighting badly. Fines from PLN 100 to 1500 were imposed, and in three cases proceedings are going to be initiated against the transporters. We are monitoring the situation.
