A few months ago we met with Pezzaioli, a popular manufacturer of livestock trucks used throughout Europe and now also some other parts of the world, to inform them that they had to improve the design of their automatic water troughs for cattle.
During our transport inspections at the EU/Turkish border, we found that cattle couldn’t get to the water easily. The flap, which had to be pushed in by the cattle, took up too much space. The head and mouth of the cattle did not fit in the trough and they could not drink with ease.
Because Eyes on Animals discussed this with Pezzaioli, they have now re-designed the flap so that it can bend into the trough, providing a bit more room for the cattle to enter his or her head. Pezzaioli has just informed us that from now on, all water troughs will be made like this and gave us these photos.
We are pleased that Pezzaioli reacted quickly to our concern and made this small improvement. We would like to see more transport companies and chauffeurs also take responsibility by voice their concerns too so that further improvements to the designs of livestock trucks be made, to at least ease the stress of transport for the animals a bit. During long distance transport good water systems are crucial. Unfortunately we still regularly see trucks with bad water systems whereby cattle can be without sufficient water for hours or days causing them to suffer and sometimes even die.
