According to a press release on Thursday, around 30 pregnant heifers were brought from the Melk district to Kayseri in trucks. Among other things, the breeding cattle were not provided with water and feed and the maximum permissible interior temperatures were exceeded. The export company will be reported to the Melk district authority.
The approximately 2,500-kilometer-long journey, which a VGT team followed, took around four days, according to the information. “The animals had to endure almost three of those days in the truck without water or food,” it said. Of the 98 hours, the heifers (cows that have never given birth to a calf) spent 59 hours on the truck, around 23 of which were without any significant movement of the truck – for example, during border crossings, sleeping and eating breaks. There was a 36-hour break in a holding pen in Bulgaria, and eight hours at the EU’s external border. Other violations of the law during the tour from June 14 to 18 included beatings and the use of a pitchfork during loading, delays in transport due to unauthorized sleeping and eating breaks with animals on the truck, failure to observe rest periods, and no three-driver operation.
Only permitted for herd building
It was stressed that exports of live animals to third countries, such as Turkey, are only permitted for the purpose of building up herds. “It is highly doubtful whether this is actually sustainable, due to the climatic conditions and the import of an immense number of heifers from Europe that have been taking place for many years,” the VGT said. Reference was made to Eurostat statistics, according to which 8,914 breeding heifers were exported from Austria to Turkey last year. “Sending pregnant cows on a day-long journey in sweltering heat and not even providing them with water most of the time is almost beyond humane. There is an immediate need for a legal ban on such cruel exports to third countries,” said VGT campaigner Isabell Eckl.