Turkey | Border Kapikule | Animal transports | Day 2

Today our team is busy at a parking lot near the border inspecting trucks with animals from various countries throughout the EU. On board are pregnant heifers, fattening calves and slaughter bulls. All animals are hot and thirsty. Some animals have been unloaded into small outdoor pens, but because these pens cannot hold many animals, most of them are left on board the trucks for hours in the burning sun. The outdoor pens are not much better for the animals: They do not provide any shade and the temperature is 38.5°C. The animals are suffering from heat stress and we can see pregnant heifers panting and salivating. They try to cool down by standing in the water trough, which is completely dirty. There is no clean water available for the thirsty animals.

In the afternoon, we make a quick round of all the animal trucks waiting inside the border, in No Man's Land, and count 30. As in previous years, there is only one water hose. Some German drivers say they have already been waiting for 10 hours. Suddenly we are asked to go to the director of customs. He tells us that we are no longer allowed inside the border. We return to the parking lot on the Turkish side of the border where trucks are waiting for their customs documents. We continue our inspections there. Even in the late evening the temperature inside the trucks is 32°C.