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Proof of Suffering
The physical and psychological condition of horses arriving
in Italy is sufficient evidence of their suffering but there
is also much scientific evidence.
Research into the transport of other species shows that suffering
is both physical and psychological and severe. Horses are
no less sensitive than other farmed animals and it follows
that they also suffer similarly. There is strong evidence
that long-distance transportation causes acute suffering in
all animals.
The first problem is inevitably dehydration. The RSPCA has
researched the outcome of this cruel and unnecessary deprivation.
Microscopic inspection of the kidneys of calves who died while
being transported reveals tissue degeneration. This may also
be due in part to alteration of blood flow to and within the
kidneys and other peripheral organs, which can occur as a
result of psychological stress. Research has also shown there
are changes in white blood cells, indicative of immune system
suppression, leading to increased susceptibility to disease
and infection (32).
In one study, the chronic hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose
levels) observed in young calves after a journey of just 300
km was still present up to two weeks later, indicating the
profound degree of stress experienced (32).
Research shows that dehydration takes place in pigs after
just six hours in transit. The EU Scientific Veterinary Committee
(SVC) Report (1992) on the transport of farmed animals points
out that pigs drink 18 to 20 times a day, indicating the need
for all pigs to have constant access to water during transit.
The report goes on to say that pigs will tend not to eat or
drink whilst the vehicles are in motion for as long as 24
hours. If they do eat whilst on the move, they are inclined
to vomit afterwards. Despite this knowledge of acute suffering,
the welfare of these animals is overridden for commercial
interests.
A number of stress factors has been identified as being capable
of compromising the immune system of animals. They include
extremes of heat and cold, crowding, mixing with unfamiliar
animals and noise. Horses are subjected to all these stresses
and more.
Physiological effects
It is important to underline just how profound is the physiological
stress which occurs to horses during long-distance transport.
“Many research institutes are in possession of clinical
data, illustrating that horses being transported by air or
road for long hauls, suffer from travel stress and related
disease. The respiratory system is primarily affected, with
symptoms varying from dehydration to full-blown shipping fever,
which can have fatal consequences.” (22)
Dehydration
Dehydration can be a major problem in horses: “As in
all animals, the horse is susceptible to dehydration (i.e.
loss of body fluids) which can in itself cause death.”
The inadequate supply of water on these long journeys and
the horses’ frequent refusal to drink because of acute
stress, ensures that suffering from dehydration is commonplace
(16).
According to the Journal of Animal Science: “As the
duration of the transport increases, especially beyond 27
hours in summer conditions, muscle fatigue and dehydration
become major physiological concern.” (29). The horses
transported to Italy, of course, can travel for three times
longer than this period and temperatures in summer can be
intensely hot.
A horse is a large animal and needs to drink a considerable
amount of water. The Manual of Horsemanship says: “The
body of an adult horse is 60 to 70 per cent water and although
a horse can lose almost all his body fat and half the body
protein and survive; a 20 per cent loss of water can prove
fatal. As a rough guide, horses drink 27 to 54 litres a day,
but may need more in hot weather.” (19)
Even if water is available for the horses, which is often
not the case in those exported from Poland for slaughter,
it is not provided in anything like this quantity. Even when
water is provided, the horses may not want to drink because
of the conditions they endure, says the Equine Veterinary
Journal:
“Transportation, strange surroundings and a change in
management may all combine to reduce water intake. And in
addition, horses may lose fluids via sweating, urination,
evaporative loss via the respiratory system and faeces.”
(25)
Water retention can also cause problems for the horse: ”Horses
should also be closely watched as some will not urinate in
a
horsebox. Retention of urine can lead very quickly to serious
health problems.” (18)
Starvation
Horses exported are often not fed at all at rest stops and
if they are, the small amounts of hay with which they are
provided, has little nutritional content. Those who are positioned
in such a way that they are not facing the slats through which
the hay is pushed - and those who have collapsed - may be
unable to reach what little feed there is. John Kohnke, author
of Feeding and Nutrition in Horses states:
“Horses are ‘continuous’ eaters like the rat
and deer, they have no storage capacity in the stomach and
no gall bladder. When stabled or confined, horses should be
provided with small feeds on a regular basis. Stabled horses
should be fed at least 2-3 times daily” (17). It is highly
unlikely that any of the horses on the road to Italy are fed
three times a day or even twice.
Injury
Horses in transit can find it extremely difficult to keep
their balance. Captain M. Horrace Hayes, author of Veterinary
Notes for Horse Owners states;
“If the horse is going to maintain its balance when
travelling it must straddle all four limbs. If apprehensive
or claustrophobic it may not do this. If the limbs are not
straddled the horse will tend to fall either to the left or
to the right, especially when going around corners, and may
lean against the side of the trailer and kick” (21)
Overcrowding can add to the horses difficulty in remaining
balanced, according to the journal, Applied Animal Behaviour
Science:
“High stocking densities create a situation of constant
struggle for the horses. Decreasing density would reduce the
overall stressfulness of long distance transport by allowing
the horses some manoeuvring room to avoid aggressive horses,
to stand in a more comfortable position, to adopt their preferred
orientation and perhaps to allow them to rest during periods
when the truck is stopped” (24).
Slaughter trucks are inevitably overloaded so that horses
do not have a choice of where to stand and some are tethered
so tightly that they can barely move. The failure to remove
excreta from the trucks compounds the problem by making the
floor slippery and difficult to gain a foot hold.
Horses have rarely been socialised before they are loaded
into trucks at the markets in Poland. This can cause fatal
injuries due to fighting, according to the Journal of the
American Veterinary Medicine Association:
“Horses can become seriously injured as the result of
fighting in small confined pens. Mixing horses that are unfamiliar
with each other in the holding pens is probably a major cause
of injuries to horses during marketing and transport. The
worst fights often occur shortly after mixing groups of horses
that do not know each other” (27). Listening to the tension,
aggression and fear which emanates from the inside of trucks
in Polish markets which have just been loaded for the journey
to Italy, is a clear indication of this.
Some of the transporters used for horses destined for slaughter
are in notoriously bad condition and many are unsuitable for
journeys of any length. This adds to the chance of severe
injury occurring, according to the Journal of Animal Science:
“The design of trailers for transporting horses unequivocally
affects their physiological responses and frequency of injuries.”
(29)
Stress
The Equine Veterinary Journal is clear that travelling for
all horses is stressful, even under the best conditions. Those
exported for slaughter are particularly at risk and undergo
extreme stress because all the individual components that
constitute this condition are present:
“Horses are subjected to many potential stressors during
transport, including variations in temperature, humidity,
air quality, vibration and restricted feed and water intake”
(26).
It has to be remembered that the journey times to which Polish
horses are subjected are amongst the longest anywhere. All
the problems identified by research are clearly applicable
to them.
Simply the act of transport itself produces high levels of
stress, according to the journal Applied Animal Behaviour
Science.
“Transportation of horses by road has been shown to be
stressful and affect animals negatively through a variety
of means that potentially compromises long term-welfare, including
diarrhoea, significant increases in adrenacortical function
and weight loss. Travel orientation that causes anxiety to
the animals during transport might increase the severity and
occurrence of these affects. The mere act of maintaining balance
is an additional source of stress in horses.” (23)
The Journal of Animal Science also found stress to be an
important factor in the transportation of horses: “Horses
undergoing 24-hours of transportation in hot, summer conditions,
showed physiological responses that included changes in stress
indices, body weight and rectal temperatures (31).”
These major changes were noted after just 24 hours, which
gives some indication of the levels of stress after 80 or
90 hours on the road.
Disease
A major illness that arises in horses during transportation
is pulmonary infection and pneumonia, according to the Equine
Veterinary Journal:
“Transport has been shown to alter respiratory immune
responses in horses possibly due to an increase in endogenous
glucocorticoid hormone release. Noxious gases in the transporter
environment may be partially responsible for transport related
pulmonary disease.” (26)
These findings are confirmed by the Journal of Comparative
Pathology:
“Transportation is believed to play a major role in
equine respiratory infections. Pulmonary defence mechanisms
may be adversely affected by stress and airborne pathogens
of irritants may be inhaled.
“It is suggested that transport predisposes the upper
respiratory tract and the lower airways to invasion by the
bacterium, with episodic pyrexia and acute pneumonia.”
(30)
And there are other problems, according to the Journal of
the American Veterinary Medicine Association:
“Transport in general is a stressor in horses that can,
for example, lead to salmonellosis, high heart rates and changes
in plasma ascorbic acid and serum cortisol concentrations.”
(28)
Dr Theo G Antikas, DVM, Aristotelian U Physiology Department
(Greece), and Secretary General of the Hellenic Pony Club,
has identified other problems (see also Call for Moratorium):
“There is a statistically significant rise in gastrin
levels in horses during long periods of transportation, which
leads to gastric ulcer formation. Gastrin is a hormone (over)
secreted under stress, and results in overproduction of gastric
acid (HCL).” (20)
Scientific experiments to study the affects of transportation
of horses have been carried out on horses who were fit and
healthy prior to loading. Even these animals clearly suffer
extensively when subjected to extended transport - and usually
that is deemed to be 24 hours. However, it has been observed
that in Polish markets, many of the horses are unfit, stressed
and exhausted before even being loaded into slaughter trucks.
They start their journey to death already in a lamentable
state - dehydrated, sometimes lame, old or diseased. It is
not surprising, then, that horses often die before they reach
the abattoirs in Italy and those who do survive the horrendous
journey are usually in an appalling state on arrival.
The Expert’s View
Jeremy James, consultant to the International League for
the Protection of Horses (ILPH) and one of the authors of
its 2000 field report, The Slaughter Horse Trade in Eastern
Europe (33), has tracked the trade over many years. His knowledge
of horses is profound, having been brought up with horses
in Kenya, travelled long distances on horse back - from Turkey
to Wales and from Bulgaria through Eastern Europe to Berlin
- and having kept horses for most of his life. He has worked
with horses in 22 different countries, mostly as a nutritionist
dealing with marginalised equine user groups and their working
horses. Jeremy has been a consultant with the ILPH for 10
years, has published numerous scientific papers and three
books and holds an MSc and is an associate lecturer at the
University of Wales in Bangor. Jeremy has established close
contact with the different interests who constitute the live
horse export business - horse owners, breeders, studs, transport
companies, government officials and veterinarians.
In June, 2001, he addressed Equus, an animal welfare conference
hosted by the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in
Stockholm. He revealed that the further horse transporters
have to travel, the lower the price that is paid for each
horse. The outcome is that minimal standards of welfare are
observed, truck operators need to return to the source outlets
as frequently as possible to retain commercial viability,
they load as many horses as possible in as short a time as
possible and frequently allow for no stops at all for food
and water.
He went on to say that existing legislation failed to provide
proper welfare for transported animals from a scientific and
a practical point of view. Because of this, the traffic should
not be permitted at all.
The evidence for this demand, he said, came from his own
observations and he suggested that a first step in achieving
such a goal would be to introduce a law preventing animals
from being transported for longer than 24 hours from their
point of origin, after which time they could not be transported
live for slaughter. He added that future developments in the
trade, which unless dealt with now, would lead to the likelihood
of horses being sourced from as far afield as China.
His views on the trade, based on his first hand experiences
and set out in correspondence with Viva!, raise many concerns.
He says:
“If Polish horses, or any of the transiting horses,
travel non stop to Italy, I should not be surprised. They
are supposed to stop at Zbrzydovice lairage to be unloaded,
fed and watered. However, each time I have been there, trucks
have been full, horses have been standing waiting in them
and there has been little evidence of any being unloaded or
fed and watered en masse.
“But there is another problem, which any person with
a knowledge of horses would immediately identify. Under normal
circumstances, if a limited amount of feed is taken into a
group of horses - in a field for instance - it provokes immediate
aggression. The same thing happens on transports, except,
of course, that the horses are tethered. Water has a similar
effect and the result can be terrible injuries.
“It is in the horse's basic nature to fight for food
when there is a shortage. Feeding and watering them en route
in the way that it is done - where no one wants to unload
them - possibly has more ill effects than good. Ipso facto,
transporting horses in groups creates a situation which immediately
imperils them and precludes them from either eating or drinking.
Since animals are supposed to be fed and watered every eight
hours by law, this naturally compromises their safety.
“No rational human being could stand beside a horse
transporter at a feed and watering station, watching horses
rip each other’s backs open for a pitiful amount of food
and water, and claim that this trade is morally, ethically
or scientifically acceptable.
“It is another clear reason to outlaw the transport
of live horses for slaughter in groups. My own view is that
the trade is barbaric. Any government prepared to condone
such an act by silent acquiescence, or to legislate for it,
is the root cause and can, therefore, rightly be accused of
barbarism”.
These are extremely strong words from a man who has dedicated
his life to horses. They are clearly aimed at several governments,
including Italy, France and Poland.
The Veterinary View
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the abuse of horses
exported live to Italy - some of which is detailed in this
report - Poland’s chief veterinary officer, Dr. Andzej
Komorowski, refuses to accept that there are any problems
(33). He has stated that the horses sourced in Poland are
all exported in good condition and therefore their transportation
is not an issue. Dr. Komorowski has strongly implied that
the live horse trade is of no concern to the Polish authorities
and moreover provides valuable revenue for the country. He
has also expressed no concern for the plight of horses entering
Poland from third countries such as Lithuania and certainly
there appears to be no attempt made to monitor or control
the condition of these horses while they are on Polish soil.
Despite the failures of veterinary inspection and control
identified by one of his own government departments (see Laws
not Enforced) there is no apparent intention to improve veterinary
inspection at border crossings and no intention to increase
the cost of horse ‘inspections’, currently costing
about $2 per animal, to fund an improvement in veterinary
services - both of which have been advocated by different,
concerned organisations. Clearly, the official view is that
the trade is fair, the animals are well cared for while they
are on Polish soil and what happens to them once they cross
the border is of no consequence.
Poland, it seems, is very happy to profit from the trade
in live horses, but prefers to close its eyes to the abuse
involved. It refuses to enforce veterinary requirements while
the animals are on Polish soil, disclaims all responsibility
for them once they cross Poland’s borders - despite the
animals having been reared in Poland, sold by Polish people,
often exported by Polish companies, transported in Polish
trucks and the trade contributes to Poland’s foreign
currency earnings. Dr Komorowski sees this trade as Poland’s
right but ignores the responsibilities which should always
accompany rights.
It is a view which ignores all the available evidence that
the trade is not fair, animals do suffer in Poland and Poland’s
eagerness to promote the sale of horse meat abroad actively
encourages the mass abuse of exported animals. To allow foreign
trade to blind a whole administration to this cruelty is,
Viva! believes, unacceptable in a world which claims to be
civilised.
In essence, the well-documented problems of stress, dehydration,
travel exhaustion, injury, terror and physical collapse are
all someone else’s concerns. Had these been the views
of a politician they would have been more understandable.
The fact that they are the views of a senior civil servant
who is not just a veterinarian but the country’s senior
veterinarian - and therefore custodian of Poland’s animal
welfare conscience - is little short of chilling.
It is impossible for Dr. Komorowski to claim ignorance. In
the last 10 years, the stark facts behind the export of horses
has been brought to the attention of the authorities through
petitions delivered to numerous Polish institutions, including
by the Dutch Animal Protection Union (3), Compassion in World
Farming and Viva!. Graphic articles have appeared in magazines
such as Paris Match and Stern and footage has been shown in
countries throughout Europe. Viva!’s latest campaign
adds considerable volume of knowledge and new weight to this
position so that no legislators or civil servants can claim
ignorance of what is happening.
Dr. Komorowski’s views, however, are reiterated by Mr.
Piotr Kozerski, commercial councillor and minister plenipotentiary,
at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, London, in a letter
to Viva! dated August 22, 2001.
Mr. Kozerski claimed that Poland is not a leading exporter
of horses to Italy (despite being the principal European country
involved in live horse exports) and that it is surpassed by
both Argentina and Brazil. He maintained that Lithuania and
Latvia are significant exporters (despite the comparatively
small numbers of horses which emananate from those countries)
and that these horses are frequently mistaken for horses from
Poland. Similarly, Italian transported horses may be mistaken
for Polish horses.
This dismissal of Polish responsibility is also repeated
by Mr. Zdzislaw Sytymin, Director of the Zebrozydowice lairage,
through which all horses are supposed to transit. Paperwork
for July, August and September shows that the majority of
horses deemed unfit to travel and removed from transporters,
were Polish - 18 from Poland and four from Lithuania/Belarus
(33). Sadly, this small total number of unfit horses says
more about the lack of adequate inspection than anything else.
However, it enables Dr. Komorowski and Mr. Kozerski to ignore
the findings of Poland’s own bureaucracy, which is far
more critical than these minimal figures would suggest (see
Laws not Enforced). Mr. Kozerski went on to say that horses
from Poland are subject to rigorous regulations. They receive
detailed veterinary examination and only healthy animals are
allowed to travel - and all are covered by ‘positive’
certificates. The horses are subjected to further tests, he
maintained, at the border crossings where they are also given
water. In the case of long journeys, they are also fed at
border crossings. None of these claims are supported by the
available evidence.
In effect, Mr. Kozerski wipes his hands of the problem by
claiming that only 30 per cent of the horses exported from
Poland to Italy are carried by Polish haulage contractors,
the remaining 70 per cent being carried by Italian companies.
Any failures by the Italians, he maintains, might wrongly
be attributed to the Polish transporters. He expressed no
concern for, nor intention to control, the failures of Italian
companies transporting Polish horses either when they are
on Polish soil nor after they have left it. He added that
there may be a few occasions when Polish transporters infringed
the accepted standards for the humane treatment of animals
and concluded: “Such, however, would be singular and
isolated cases.” Mr. Kozerski quotes no official figures
to support his contention - mostly, we presume, because they
don’t exist.
While Dr. Komorowski and Mr. Kozerski may claim to be unaware
of any welfare problems, MVDr Anton Dorstal of the Administration
of Veterinary Treatment, Ministry of Agriculture, Slovakia,
is clearly not. He has acknowledged that horses suffer greatly
from the stress of transportation and believes it necessary
to ban the trade (33). Slovakia does not produce horse meat
nor export horses for slaughter but most of the trade transits
through that country.
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