The Long Journey to Slaughter: The Transport of Lambs from Eastern Europe to Italy
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Every year, millions of lambs are slaughtered in Italy. But many of these lambs are not born there.
In fact, before they are slaughtered, they are forced to endure a hellish journey all the way from other European countries where they’ve been raised.
The journey can be as long as 1,200 miles and it lasts for days, in completely unacceptable conditions.
Our investigators followed these lambs on this long journey to the slaughterhouse so their story could be told to the public. We also documented violations of the law that caused great suffering to these animals, and we reported these offenses to the authorities.
Our investigation was conducted in collaboration with the German organization Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and the National Animal Protection Agency of Italy (ENPA).
Animal Equality has been conducting investigations into the live transport of animals for a number of years.
Please help us continue this important work for animals and expose the horrific conditions of animals farmed for food: AnimalEquality.org/donate
And please, keep animals off your plates.
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Transcript (English — en)
over half a million lambs are
slaughtered in italy at the end of each
year to meet the holiday demand alone
many of them are raised in eastern
europe and transported by truck to
italian slaughterhouses since 2018
animal equality has been documenting the
many violations occurring during these
live transports
lambs are forced to make grueling
journeys that can last days
we found trucks with lambs piled on top
of each other crushed and left without
food or water
we documented lambs that were dead or
dying due to the conditions in which
they had to travel
once again at the end of the year our
investigation team worked day and night
together with animal welfare foundation
and enpa to expose the suffering of
these young animals transported over the
holiday season
we reported several trucks to the
authorities on route from hungary poland
and romania heading to italy through the
slovenian border
[Music]
two of these trucks were stopped by law
enforcement the first truck inspected
found crowded lands arranged on four
levels crying out in distress
[Music]
they had been traveling for hours the
outside temperature was 33 degrees
fahrenheit
these lambs look so young they may not
have even been fully weaned and all were
showing clear signs of physical stress
[Music]
the second truck inspected by
authorities was also crowded with lambs
crying out in distress confusion and
fear
the temperature inside the truck was 42
degrees just barely above the minimum
temperature allowed by law
these young animals have been torn from
their mothers and with transport trucks
not equipped with drinking troughs it
makes it very difficult for unwind lands
to endure these long journeys without
feeding
european law prohibits the infliction of
unnecessary suffering on animals this
includes the suffering and even death of
limbs during their transport to be
slaughtered
all the animals that travel on these
trucks will face the same fate
slaughter over the years we have
documented regulations ignored and
violations often going unpunished
[Music]
this is the reality that over half a
million lambs face at the end of every
year in
the italy for land meat has dropped over
the years thanks in part to the work of
animal equality too many lives still
suffer in these difficult conditions
we will continue to document and expose
these injustices to the public to the
judicial authorities and european
institutions because too little is being
done for these animals
this january the european parliament
will vote on a series of measures
recommended by a commission of inquiry
that investigated the transport
we now have the opportunity to get a
full revision of the transport
regulation
animal equality will continue to
pressure institutions and work
tirelessly until we achieve lasting
protections for these animals by
changing a senseless and cool
transportation system that inflicts
unnecessary suffering on millions of
individuals each year
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