While driving on the A2 towards Berlin, Eyes on Animals spotted a livestock truck from the company Ben van der Walle. As many complaints have been made concerning this company in the past, we asked the German highway police to stop it and do a random inspection. Fortunately this time the transport documents and the conditions for the animals were satisfactory.
The piglets on board had access to water and the loading density was low. We did not observe any seriously injured animals, although the piglets were very scratched and many were observed fighting. This occurs because piglets are often mixed with unfamiliar ones right before transport. Animals should be kept in their social groups and not re-mixed all the time as this causes an enourmous amount of stress from having to continually re-establish the ranking order. The piglets were destined for a fattening farm near Warsaw in Poland.
