No Parliamentary Majority for ending animal transports in extreme heat
Temperatures in animal transport trucks can rise high in summer in the Netherlands too, causing severe animal suffering. Sometimes animals in cattle trucks in the Netherlands have to wait for hours without water at a border crossing or on the parking lot of the slaughterhouse. Overheated and dehydrated animals, jammed together in trucks, are no exception in these circumstances. But there is no large Parliamentary Majority to put a stop to it. A motion by the Party for the Animals to ban animal transports when the outside temperature is 28 ˚C (84 ˚F) or higher was rejected.
Copyright Hans de Clercq
Cattle trucks end up in traffic jams or sometimes they have to wait for hours at a border crossing. Temperatures in summer months quickly rise to 35 ˚C (95 ˚F) or higher in the (uncooled) trucks. Those temperatures are unbearable for the animals, which suffer from dyspnea or exhaustion in the jammed trucks. The Party for the Animals finds this unacceptable and pleads for a ban on cattle transports on days when temperatures are higher than 28 ˚C (84 ˚F).
Party for the Animals MP Frank Wassenberg: “Many people can’t cope with these high temperatures. So you can imagine that these circumstances are unbearable for animals in full cattle trucks. Transports can take hours. It is irresponsible that companies continue to transport animals in these high temperatures as if nothing is wrong.“