69 pregnant cows die after horror transport: driver "could cry"
Brandenburg/Turkey - Traumatic weeks for two German livestock transport drivers: due to communication complications at a national border, the two drivers and their 69 pregnant cows have to wait helplessly. Until the first animals die and the survivors are euthanized.
ATTENTION, traumatic descriptions!
When the two trucks set off for Turkey from southern Brandenburg on September 12, 2024, Heinrich A. and his colleague have no idea what is about to happen to them. They are to routinely transport pregnant cows to Turkey for milk production.
After crossing the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, the convoy makes a forced stop at the Turkish border after 1900 kilometers. The reason: Brandenburg is considered an epidemic area and the cows are tested for the contagious bluetongue disease. Although all the four-legged friends are negative, they cannot continue. And a return to the EU is also out of the question.
"We were in no man's land," recalls Heinrich. "It was a terminal with five-metre-high concrete walls, a three-metre-high fence on top and cameras in every corner." Even the drivers were not allowed to leave the customs area. Why? They don't know. They pay for the food for the cows caught on the truck themselves after a few days.
They hope for a positive end. But that is not to be. Much worse: it is supposed to be a traumatizing experience.
Animal transport documentary (ZDF): "What they did to the animals and to us is not so easy to process"
Following a tip-off from animal rights activists, a camera team arrives in the customs area on October 11, 29 days after departure. What they see is gruesome: thirsty and exhausted animals standing inches deep in their excrement. Some have already given birth to calves that are lying on the ground out of weakness. "I can't handle it very well, I could cry," says Heinrich, looking through the bars.
Sometimes the mother cows are allowed into a barn, but have to leave again because of the stench and the flies - back onto the semitrailers. After a month, the first animals die, trampled deeper and deeper into the muddy faeces by those still alive. A disgusting sight that the drivers have to watch helplessly.
"What they did to the animals and us is not so quick or easy to process. We looked after the animals from morning to night and no help came from anyone," says Heinrich sadly.
After a few more days, the trucks set off. They go to a slaughterhouse where the live animals are unloaded and euthanized. The cows that have already died at this point are pulled out of the trucks onto a garbage dump. As one of them is still breathing despite hours of struggling to survive, it has to be anaesthetized and then killed.
Driver Heinrich: "I still wake up at night and ask myself whether it all had to be like this"
Heinrich has to wrap one rope after another around the legs of the cadavers, getting into his completely filthy truck again and again. A lasting experience: "I still wake up at night and ask myself whether it all had to be like this."
Irene Weiersmüller from Animals Angels e.V., who is also on site and always hopes for a positive outcome, hopes "that this case, as bad as it was, can do something to prevent something like this from happening."
The documentary - beware, with some disturbing footage - will be shown on ZDF on Tuesday (November 26) from 10.15 pm. It is now available inthe ZDFmediathek.