20. July 2018

Turkey| Kapikule | EU Politician and official veterinarian accompany our inspection teams

[Translate to English:] Kontrolle von Tiertransportern an der türkischen Grenze

[Translate to English:] Tschechische Rinder in einem überladenen Transporter nach zwei Stunden Pause in Kapikule

For several years now TSB|AWF teams have been documenting systematic breaches of the Regulation (EC) 1/2005 during transports to Turkey in the hot summer months, resulting in extreme animal suffering. Fortunately, this time our teams are accompanied to the Bulgarian-Turkish border by a Member of European Parliament and a German official veterinarian, who want to see what is going on at this border. The number of animal transports arriving at Kapikule is relatively small, but problems are still evident for the observers: despite temperature over 32 degrees, animal transports have been sent by organizers and Member State officials, in clear disregard of the provisions of the EU Regulation. Some of the transports from Czech Republic and Slovakia are overcrowded, which increases ventilation problems even more. Pregnant heifers in a Croatian truck have been confined onboard the vehicle for more than 30 hours already, and only due to the intervention of our team the driver buys hay to feed the animals. Majority of cattle is unloaded in Kapikule for 2-3 hours and watered, then carried further to their destinations, sometimes more than a 1000km away. The overall conclusion of our observers is that this trade is not in compliance with the decision of the European Court of Justice which ruled that the rest and travel times have to be respected until the destination in the Third Country.