According to the EU legislation, animals must be accessible during transport and animals that become unwell must be separated and given first-aid. Sadly, poultry throughout Europe are still not given the benefit of this protection; to date these legislative requirements are still being ignored by the poultry industry and law-enforcers.
In late August we trailed poultry from the Netherlands for 12,5 hours to a slaughterhouse in Poland. We noticed many birds with open wounds and some were bleeding profusely. Nothing could be done however to put these birds out of their misery as the crates still do not provide any access to the birds once they are stacked on the truck. The birds were prisoners to their crate and were left to suffer during the whole 12.5 hour journey.
Eyes on Animals will continue to pressure the poultry industry to come up with a better design of crate which provides access. This case has been sent to the NVWA and EU authorities.
