Today we document three sheep transports crossing the border in the early afternoon. The heat is severe and the unshorn sheep from Romania suffer immensely on board of trucks. We see at least one leg trapped between the floor and the wall of the trailer. The sheep are breathing heavily, look exhausted, while overcrowding with insufficient headspace is aggravating the situation. Despite the fact that the trucks wait in the line-up to cross the border for half an hour in direct sunlight, the drivers had not turned the ventilators on. They only do it after our intervention. The water is turned on, but hot, and water troughs are dirty. We find this very surprising, because according to the drivers, the animals rested for 24 hours in Svilengrad. The distance between the control post and the border is about 25 km, so not long enough to explain such problems. If the situation for the animals is so severe already on the Bulgarian side of the border, what would it be like several kilometres and hours later?
