Eyes on Animals inspectors inspected a private weekly livestock market near Brugge in Belgium. Today 78 „slaughter“ horses were for sale. Together with the director we checked on the condition of the horses. All animals were in very good shape. The floor of the market was recently redone so that it is now non-slip, reducing the chances of animals falling and hurting themselves. Stallions were kept in individual stalls to avoid stress or fighting with mares and other stallions. The loading ramps were all equipped with lateral protection so that animals could be correctly loaded and unloaded.
We were told that any animal arriving in poor shape is automatically not accepted. Because of this rule such attempts are rare. They have a market rule that no one is allowed to use sticks or other tools to hit animals, and on this day we indeed did not see any sticks in the hands of the traders. There is a full-time private veterinarian at this market, and official government veterinarian inspectors show up regularly.
We were satisfied with the conditions at the market. We thank the market director and the veterinarian for being open with us and for having made efforts to protect animals at their market. We plan to come back at a future date when cattle are sold here.
