Poland | Bodzentyn, Lagow | Monthly Report June: Cattle and Horse Markets
Lagow cattle market: Due to a lack buyers, the animals are not even unloaded from the lorries.
Our team encounters the same situation as last month: The chickens are still transported in plastic bags without ventilation holes. We are reporting this animal welfare violation to the competent authorities.
This month our team returns to the cattle market in Lago to ensure that the welfare of the animals being sold at the market is respected. Both animal markets in Lagow and Bodzentyn re-opened recently after the imposed restrictions related to COVID-19 were released.
The number of cattle present at the markets is very low. During our inspection there are between 100-150 in Bodzentyn and just a couple of animals in Lagow. Due to the fact, there are no buyers, the animals are not even unloaded from the vehicles in Lagow. The farmers are complaining that the main trade moved away from the markets to the private assembly centres belonging to traders that used to buy animals at the cattle markets. Unfortunately, we as an NGOs are not welcome there. Therefore, we cannot enter those premises. However, we hope that the private assembly centres are regularly being controlled by the official veterinarians.
Chickens are also sold at the Bodzentyn cattle market. Our notification concerning the unacceptable way of transporting the chickens in plastic bags, reached the chicken-traders. We reported this animal welfare violation last month. We suggested that the traders should use card boxes with ventilation holes instead. Now one trader wants us to provide these boxes for free. However, our responsibility as an NGO is not to provide these boxes to them. They need buy them themselves. The traders are still ignoring our warning and continue to pack several birds into plastic bags without ventilation holes. We will continue to report this violation to the competent authorities in order to end this cruel way of transporting live animals.
