Back in early March we arrived at assembly centre Lunteren to find a trailer with two seriously injured sows onboard. One of the sows had a large open wound across her entire back. Another sow had a large and badly healed wound on her rear flank and she was foaming and panting. Read the website report here >>
The video footage we took resulted in parliamentary questions. The minister recognized that at the very least the sow with the gaping wound should not have been transported.
Nevertheless, we received a response from NVWA that our request for enforcement was denied. According to the NVWA there was insufficient evidence to determine that the sows shown in our footage were actually at the assembly centre in Lunteren. They advised that in order to take action they needed more concrete evidence such as license-plate numbers and eartag numbers. We would normally note down this information, but we were chased away during our visit whilst being verbally abused. This behaviour tells us that something was definitely wrong.
Eyes on Animals still believes that sufficient evidence was presented to NVWA to proceed with enforcement action. For example, on the video you are able to recognize that the truck is parked at assembly centre Lunteren and immediately after our visit there was a WhatsApp exchange with the owner of the collection centre in which it was confirmed that Eyes on Animals had been present shortly before. Also we gave the NVWA the name written on the truck. Another serious concern is, the Veterinary appeals board has in the past issued a warning to a NVWA vet present at the collection centre in Lunteren for approving pigs with abscesses, lameness and tail necrosis for transportation.
We have therefore filed a complaint. We have asked for all the documents in this file so we can research the thoroughness and quality of the NVWA investigation.
