When we arrive at the Land L slaughterhouse on Friday morning, it is raining heavily and will continue raining until Monday. The horses are standing crowded together in the open, soaking wet. There are shelters in some of the pens, but their size is insufficient for the number of horses. In a few places, we see hay lying in the mud. According to a…

We drive to the acopio (horse assembly centre) in Santiago Temple, which is vast. We have been here many times before. What we find is always the same. In the middle of the acopio, there is a huge pile of carcasses with hundreds of dead horses.

A storm has passed recently. Trees and branches are lying around. The holding pens and feeding places…

There are hundreds of horse assembly centres in Argentina, so-called acopios. Today, we visit once again the acopio in Ibicuy with the sacred name of “Espiritu Santo”. It belongs to the slaughter horse dealer Jorge Saap, known as “El Turco”.

The temperature has reached 38°C, but the horses have no shade available, not even from trees. We see…

This month our Farm Animal Service (FAS) team starts their work on a farm in Celiny. Our plan is to trim the hooves of a young mare. However, when we arrive the mare is not willing to cooperate and does not leave her stable. We are trying to convince her, but we do not succeed. Therefore, we have to stop our work for now. In the meantime, the owner…

This month, we do not observe any injured or neglected animals whilst inspecting the cattle market in Bodzentyn. The veterinary inspection is controlling every market, sometimes also with the assistance of local police. The average number of cattle present at the market amounts to about 150 animals. The majority are calves. The government will…

This month, we assume that there will be much more animals at the cattle market because Christmas is upcoming. Nevertheless, we do not see more animals than usual. We do not observe any injured or neglected animals, either. The veterinary inspector is controlling the trucks. Later, we are informed they are going to inspect every market until…

Our Farm Animal Service (FAS) team is called to the farm in Dabrowa where two stallions have problems with eating. We are checking their teeth. They are very sharp, and we must trim them. During trimming we discover that one of the stallions has a wisdom tooth that needs to be removed as well. After the treatment our team is visiting another farm.…

Another setback regarding our long-standing research on the transport of calves:  In a verdict form 9th of December 2019, the district office of Ravensburg was asked to approve a transport of 149 calves from the German town Bad Waldsee to Spain. The district office has denied to approve long-distance transports of calves with reference to the "Live…

In November and December 2019, transports of unweaned calves to Spain are not approved in the German state of Baden-Würrtemberg due to transport restrictions. However, our team reveals that calves are still being transported to Spain via assembly centres. This practise is also referred to as "assembly centre hopping".

Calves from Southern Germany…