Investigations by Topics:

24. July 2019

Poland, Slovenia, Israel | Transport of calves from Lithuania

Our team and investigators from our partner organisation, Israel Against Live Shipments (IALS), gather evidence of severe suffering of animals during long-distance transport from Lithuania to Israel. The documentation covers two long weeks of transport.

Our team is in Poland to control the transport of calves. We want to verify the compliance of…

23. July 2019

Germany | Reinhardshain | Veterinarian stopps transport of hens

Copyright: Polizei Mittelhessen

On Tuesday evening is still 37°C when a veterinarian is called to check on a transport of chickens on the autobahn A5 in Germany. She experienced a lot, but the sight of the 4,800 layers is extremely depressing. The animals have already been transported in hot weather for one day without food or water by a dutch transport company. The hens are from…

04. July 2019

Russia | Smolensk | Cattle exports to Kazachsthan

Cattle from the Czech Republic on their long journey to Kazaksthan.

Our team is trailing two trucks with cattle over 1.500 km, from the Smolensk area via Moscow to Samara, in the Southeast of Russia. The goal is to observe the compliance with EU Regulation No. 1/2005 concerning the required resting and feeding intervalls.

The traffic along the route is insane and so are the drivers of the trucks we are following.…

04. July 2019

Turkey | Kapikule | Animal transport to Turkey: Day 3

Truck with bulls from Romania arriving at the Turkish side of the border.

Only one truck with animals crosses the Turkish border today. It is loaded with young bulls from Romania. They are unloaded at a nearby stable to be watered and fed for a few hours. The animals are very thirsty and immediately start fighting for access to the water trough.

In the late afternoon, our team crosses the border in order to check if…

03. July 2019

Turkey | Kapikule | Animal transport to Turkey: Day 2

No animal trucks cross the Turkish border today.

The weather forecast predicts temperatures of 39°C at the Turkish border for today. This is the first day since we started observing this border in 2010 that we do not see any animal trucks crossing the border. We are satisfied that finally our minimum demand that no animals are transported in hot weather is fulfilled, at least for today.

02. July 2019

Turkey | Kapikule | Animal transport to Turkey: Day 1

Exhausted sheep lying down.

Our team starts to inspect animal trucks from the EU entering Turkey at the border of Kapikule. Close to the border crossing, we see young bulls with Austrian ear tags in a private stable. For one day, they have been stuck inside the border and for another one at this stable due to problems with their documents. Six other trucks with Austrian…

18. June 2019

Partial sucess: Hungary stopps animal transports during summer

Today, our team receives information from the Ministry of Agriculture in Hungary that animal transports from and through Hungary to Turkey will be banned from 21st of June on in case of extreme summer heat along the route to Turkey.

This is a great success of our work during the last years, where we informed Ministries about the tremendous…

21. May 2019

Germany | Alliance 90/The Greens meeting on animal exports to non-EU countries

We are reporting on the risks for animals during transport in non-EU countries.

The urgent need for action concerning the export of bovines to non-EU countries is discussed at an information event by the German party "Alliance 90/The Greens" under the leadership of Bernd Voß (Member of the Landtag Schleswig-Holstein). We report on the situation of certain non-EU export routes and inform about inspection reports published by…

17. April 2019

Slovenia, Italy | Transport of lambs

Italian police stopping a Hungarian truck with lambs.

Every year before Easter, Italy imports tens of thousands of lambs for slaughter, mainly from Romania and Hungary. AWF|TSB teams check on the transport conditions, supported by the Italian animal welfare organisation ENPA. We inspect a total of eleven trucks, three of them together with the Italian police. All three are in breach of the EU animal…