Dear industry stakeholders involved in the trade of live animals from Europe to Turkey,
For the past six years,
Animal Welfare Foundation, Eyes on Animals, Tierschutzbund Zürich, Compassion in World Farming and Animals´Angels
have been complaining to the EU Commission and the Member State officials about continuous breaches of Regulation (EC) 1/2005 during transports from the EU to Turkey committed by industry stakeholders.
Our experience has sadly shown that too many officials are incompetent- either by ignorance or naivity or lack of motivation. They are approving live-animal export consignments to Turkey whereby the animals are overcrowded, some of the animals are unfit (too pregnant, too weak…) and the journey log is completely bogus (no reserved booking at a control post to guarantee offloading, unrealistic journey times, accepting false control post names such as Kapikule or Svilengrad, claiming temperatures within the max EU range…).
This poses really bad competition for those of you trying to abide by the law and show more respect to the animals, and sets a very bad example to the cheating players in the industry (that they can get away and even profit from their bad attitude and actions).
A few transport companies cleaned up their act by getting rid of some inexperienced or lazy drivers and giving additional training and payment to the ones driving on this complicated route. Some transport companies and organizations agreed to stop sending animals in July and August when the temperatures are known to be too high, but a couple have now taken back their word saying they need to stay in the competition because animal-exporters will just use other companies.
A few livestock-truck manufacturing companies have altered the designs to their water systems and partitions and access doors, to solve some of the problems we were seeing. But sadly we have heard very little from exporters, many of whom continue to send animals on this route, and pressure transporters to load high densities and even highly pregnant cows that end up giving birth on the trucks. And we hear very little back from transport companies that continuously create problems. Even despite us offering their drivers a training course.
But the point is that although we appreciate those of you that at least took some steps, not enough has been done. Not being able to rely very much on authorities, we can only hope that you industry players will finally take the necessary action to put an end to all the horrible and unnecessary suffering and clean up your acts as much as possible.
Become aware of the problems, do not let cheating colleagues get away with it (open your mouths and police yourselves a bit better ). As long as this trade is so ridden with so much suffering , cheating and incompetent people, we will continue to expose it to the media and call for a full suspension.
In late June 2016 our teams were again at the border, for one week and it was the worst we have documented to date. Many dead animals and pregnant heifers giving birth. On top of the usual suffering from heat stress and lack of sufficient water.
You can download our June 2016 report here:
https://we.tl/eGB3dOcdhw
and watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOVtq-M0-Is
We would like to hear from you as to what steps you will take, within your company, to make a difference.
Urgent action is needed!
Yours sincerely, on behalf of Eyes on Animals and Tierschutzbund Zuerich|Animal Welfare Foundation,
Lesley Moffat
— Lesley Moffat, MSc Ethology Eyes on Animals – Director
Want to read about animal-welfare improvements? Sign up for our GoodNews Letter on our website www.eyesonanimals.com Twitter : @Eyes_on_Animals Facebook: eyesonanimals Youtube : eyesonanimalsinspect
Above – the principal person failing to act – Bernard Van Goethem of the EU Commission;
– and yes, he claims to be a veterinarian !! – animal welfare and all that !
This below is what he considers to be ok and is failing to act on:
Utterly USELESS EU COMMISSION
We have sent a copy of this post to Mr Van Goethem
Your message
To: VAN GOETHEM Bernard (SANTE)
Subject:
Sent: 05 September 2016 17:08:18 (UTC+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
was read on 05 September 2016 17:10:25 (UTC+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris.
– Like everything else with him, we expect no further action from the EU!
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, LETTERS, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), SUPPORTERS, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE, VIDEOS |
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 
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