“In early October 2018, Tomasz Patora and I started to take a closer look into the Polish cattle industry.We had a tip-off: A slaughterhouse (or abattoir) in Poland was selling the meat of sick cattle, some of which had arrived at the facility already dead. After conducting some initial background research and sneaking around the slaughterhouse a few times in the cover of night, we knew our source was telling the truth. The only problem was how we were going to get inside to prove it. After a long discussion with our editor at the investigative program Superwizjer of TVN Discovery Poland, we decided that one of us needed to go undercover and get hired as a butcher.
Happily, I got the job.
Patryk Szczepaniak went undercover to investigate a slaughterhouse in Warsaw, where he secretly recorded video. Image: Courtesy TVN Discovery Poland
We also knew that the slaughterhouse would take in diseased, dead cows for free. We knew that sometimes the sick cows had broken legs, or that their bones wouldn’t pop back in their hips after giving birth.
We also knew that after those sick cows were slaughtered, the carcasses were cleaned and visible marks of diseases were cut away, and that the meat of those sick cows were regularly sold on for human consumption.And we knew that all of this was done without any oversight by the state’s veterinary office.
We estimated that by killing around 20 sick cows per day, the slaughterhouse would earn around $660,000 of pure profit per year; if it killed only the healthy ones, its profits would come in at around $91,000 per year.
Poland produced almost 438,000 tons of bovine meat worth $1.5 million in 2018, and more than 80% of that was exported to European Union and beyond.
Before going to the slaughterhouse and asking for the job, I prepared two stories and, based on how the situation inside developed, I could choose two different paths to explain how I ended up at a slaughterhouse in the countryside, far away from major cities.
During the job interview, I began to sense that my initial story paths wouldn’t work, so I had to come up with a third story path. So I said my girlfriend had fallen pregnant by another man, which left me distraught and far away from home.
I know it sounds really cliched, but that’s the one that landed me the job.
Change of personality. Adapt to your environment. If it is an academic environment, behave and speak like an academic. If it’s a slaughterhouse, behave and speak like a butcher”.
I managed to document and film the pulling, by a rope, of sick and dead cows into the slaughterhouse; the preparation and cleaning of the sick and dead cows for further sale; the slaughter of cows in advanced stages of pregnancy; the disposal of both small and large fetuses; a wide range of animal cruelty acts; the loading of rotting carcasses into trucks for further sale; stamping by workers, my boss, and myself with an official veterinary stamp that was intended to show that the meat was examined by the veterinary service when it was not; and conversations with workers and the head of the company about procedure.
Altogether we had around 120 hours of undercover footage”.
My comment: And we immediately remember the German scandal, which has the same criminal barbarity against sick and injured cows here, in “civilized” Germany.
That was in March and April 2019, and that was the tenth slaughterhouse scandal in Germany within two years.
Connected to this is a criminal network of hundreds of farmers, livestock dealers and veterinarians who operate and support the illegal and highly profitable trade in so-called downer cows.
A farmer who was confronted with pictures of his farm said without any sense of guilt:
“It is not an isolated case that animals are so charged when they can no longer walk independently. That’s just like that. That’s economy. We do business. “
Our Agriculture Minister of Germany, Julia Klöckner said: We do not need a self-proclaimed stable police, which controls the compliance with animal welfare. It is up to the state to prosecute farmers who keep their animals bad “.
Klöckner announced that the federal government wanted to punish stabling burglaries even more in this legislative period. So far, activists often go unpunished, gaining access to stables and secretly filming. Farmers criticize this.
Klöckner:“The thing is very clear: burglary is burglary. Animal rights activists would have to abide by laws”.
No thing is clear in slaughterhouses before a brave undercover team goes in and films what corrupt politicians consider as “clear”.
Thanks to these people, we know how every system, and not just that of Poland, works with the meat mafia.
The walls of slaughterhouses have long been made of glass, but no one wants to know what’s going on in there.
Posted on August 14, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
I just had to put this beautiful little pup on here tonight – just to end the day with something good after all the export downers we have been experiencing.
Regards Mark.
Images of a beautiful rescue puppy born with a Salvador Dali-like “mustache” have caused a stir online after the dog was saved from the streets and put up for adoption, along with her mother and ten siblings, by Hearts & Bones Rescue.
Initially referred to as “mustache pup,” this adorable five-week-old puppy has now been named Salvador Dolly due to her resemblance to the surrealist Spanish artist. Inquiries about adopting her are flooding into the non-profit organization.
Dolly, along with her mother and siblings, is currently living with a loving foster family in Dallas. The whole crew is looking for forever homes in New York City and will be ready for transport at the end of August.
The rescue organization has highlighted the vital importance of people fostering and adopting rescued animals. “We were only able to save Dolly and her family because we had a foster to take them in,” it stated in a Facebook post. “The more people we have ready to open their hearts and homes to a dog in need, the more we can save!”
Salvador Dolly’s road to fame is just getting started, as she is now the face of Hearts & Bones Rescue animal adoption drive and is even on a T-Shirt saying “I mustache you to adopt.”
Rescue dogs make great companions and this unique little puppy is a great reminder of how special all animals are.
European Commission, DG Sante pilot project: “Three years ago our consortium started the adventure of developing good and better practices for the transport of 5 groups of animals.
Now in February 2019, we completed the EU project work, having developed guidelines, fact sheets, videos and having toured many European countries to forward our findings and discuss how to improve animal transport. Although officially this means the end of the project, we will keep on spreading our messages. This website will be kept alive and we hope that we will even be able to add additional translations of our documents on a later stage.
Our Facebook page will also be kept alive and report routinely on EU events on animal transport.
We invite everybody to keep using the recommendations to make sure animals are transported in the best possible ways (!!!)
And here is the visualization of the Animal Transport Guides (more videos on WorldAnimalsVoice)
EU-Kommission: ..”We invite everybody to keep using the recommendations to make sure animals are transported in the best possible ways” (!!!)
Eurogroup for Animals:The leading animal welfare organisation at EU level: We are recognised by the European Parliament and Commission as the leading animal welfare organisation at EU level and represent animal welfare interests on many EU advisory committees and consultation bodies. Over the years we have been instrumental in achieving legal protection and EU standards which dramatically improve the way animals are treated.
And we mean: The video work is actually very good, congratulations.
What we do not quite understand, to whom are the videos directed.
To the truck driver?
And before 2018, before the project is completed, did the drivers not know which laws apply to animal transport at EU level?
And now that they finally know, do they have to follow these rules? Or only if they want?
The second is more likely to be the case, as most animal transports do not comply with EU regulations so far.
And because the EU, as the “largest agricultural lobby” (Jean Ziegler quote) respects the opinion of agriculture ministries, animal transporters, slaughterhouse owners.. much more than the life of animals.
The experience of the last months with the transport of 70,000 sheep in the Persian Gulf has shown us.
Even an EU Commissioner – Vitenis Andriukaitis – got involved, a courageous MEP Anja Hazenkamp was also on the ground; but in the end, none of these individuals (who were certainly involved in drafting Animal Transport Guides) could commit the mass murder of (certainly) a thousand sheep!!
Therefore, a very legitimate question arises: if truck drivers, agriculture ministers, slaughterhouse operators, transporters … regulate the transports only on a profit basis and not on the basis of EU-Animal Transpot Regulation, which instance is responsible for their punishment, and which paragraphs regulate their penalties?
So far, it seems that the EU has not thought about it yet.
But we do.
We have not seen any dramatic improvements in animal transport, on the contrary: the condition remains dramatic to catastrophic, with still a high degree of animal suffering.
This suffering can not improve videos if those who cause it are not punished severely.
It’s that easy, even the EU and its staff could understand it.
We are waiting for the infringement procedure against Romania.
Only when that happens can Eurogroup convince us of “dramatic improvements” in animal transport.
Posted on August 13, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
There is a nice anecdod that illustrates the absurdity in our live very well:
A gentleman goes to the psychiatrist: “Doctor,” he says, “my brother thinks he is a chicken.”
“And why don`t you bring him to the clinic?” asks the doctor
“I would like to do that, but I need the eggs”!
It’s the same in life, we see the absurd, the paralogue, but we need the eggs.
Therefore, it is not very easy to admit that the EU has failed at every level if one is well paid by the EU.
Everyone needs the eggs!
In the case of the EU Commission the absurdity is only a harmless word, we should actually speak of convinced animal haters.
Who else would extend the castration of the piglets without anesthesia?
Who else would prolong the chick shredding?
Who else would bury the 8-hour campaign in the sand, despite the 1.2 million signatures?
Who else would let criminals animal tansporteure unpunished if they drive animals with 40 degrees to death?
Who else would have slaughterhouse operators continue to work if they sent pregnant, sick and injured animals for transport?
The questions go to Eurogroup for Animals, because according to their statutes they are the skilful actors to transform animal suffering to animal welfare, as a trusted bridge between the European Commission and animal suffering!
Nobody would deny that the driving force of any Eurogroup for Animals member is the defense of animal rights, at least in the first phase. It is more difficult for anyone to understand, how is it possible to work for them, who the animals demonstrably hate and have not done anything else until now, rather than closing lucrative deals with those who live on animals.
In that sense, a job for Animal Rights in Brussels is like any other job, except that it is seductively rewarded.
Over time, and having experienced all facets of anger and disgust inside ourselves for the validity of the EU Commissioners, we believe that we should not expect any improvement from either groupings or individual officials.
The groupings, because they do not even believe themselves that they have the power to persuade and convince the inept and unwilling commissars to take action.
But they need the eggs, they stick to it.
The commissioners because they have no interest in defending neither animal rights nor human rights (the case of Catalonia, a sad proof), and because the EU, as the largest agricultural lobby, has betrayed the animals.
For a long time, we have only known EU Commission and Eurogroup for animals as egg sellers from happy chickens.
Two young coyote pups were dangled by their feet from a utility pole in front of a home in Vermont’s rural Essex County. The grisly sight took place on a main road and horrified people who passed by. These innocent victims were hunted, killed, and hanged in a smug showcase of vanity.
Brenna Galdenzi of the group Protect our Wildlife was shocked when she saw these poor creatures strung up for a gruesome display. Outraged, she told New England Cable News, “I don’t really think there’s any other way to look at those photos than to be completely appalled.”
Because these pups were hanged on private property, no current laws were violated. Coyotes can be hunted all year in Vermont. In fact, it’s open season on coyotes year-round in most of the US. Even more sickening, most states hold annual coyote-killing contests that are nothing short of “gruesome celebrations of slaughter,” as reported by The Washington Post.
Vermont has recently become the 2nd state to ban these horrific contests, but we need more. Animal advocates are calling for change. However, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board recently denied a petition to restrict coyote hunting. We must speak out to save coyotes and other animals from such brutal treatment.
Sign this petition to urge Governor Scott to call for legislation that would protect coyotes and end barbaric practices such as stringing them up like criminals on display.
Patryk Szczepaniak went undercover to investigate a slaughterhouse in Warsaw, where he secretly recorded video. Image: Courtesy TVN Discovery Poland
Image: Courtesy TVN Discovery Poland
Image: SOKO Tierschutz e.V, Germany
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 