Hannah's Diary

This summer Hannah Westen, Campaigns Officer for Research and Education, followed one of Europe's slaughter routes for the first time. This is her diary.

 

 

Day 1

 

After a rather uncivilised 4am start, myself, Jo White, Director of Campaigns and Basil Hayes, Film and New Media Officer, set off for the airport. Seven-hours later we arrived at our first location in Romania, where many horses destined for Italy’s slaughterhouses begin their final journey.

Day 2

 

We met with one of our in-country coordinators, who provided vital information about the current situation regarding the export of horses for slaughter from Romania. We visited an assembly centre, where horses are loaded at the start of their journey, but it showed no signs of recent use.

 

 

Day 3

 

A tiring 8-hour journey from Romania to a control post in Hungary, where one horse in particular caught my attention. He was a large elderly chestnut gelding showing signs of complete exhaustion. His headcollar had come off and was hanging down from his neck, where it was fastened tightly, and a short rope tied to the metal railing prevented him from lying down. On either side of him stressed stallions fought viciously with each other. He was trapped in the middle with no means of escape; but he didn’t join in – he just stood there with his head down, unable to rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4

 

Following a disturbed night’s sleep, during which I struggled to banish the image of the old chestnut gelding, we were up early for a second day of observations. Many horses at the control post bore the signs of an uncomfortable night of ‘rest’. In an end pen was a large quiet bay gelding. He was extremely gentle and affectionate but had bleeding bite wounds on his quarters where he had been attacked in the night by another horse. His injured limbs were also clearly causing him considerable discomfort.

 

 

Day 5

 

At 9.30am we received a call to say that a lorry containing horses had stopped at the control post for a food and water break. It was unnerving observing the horses while they were still on the lorry. There were many regulation breaches, for example, the space between partitions was far too small; many horses were touching the partitions on both sides. At lunchtime we started our journey through Slovenia to Italy. We arrived at the control post at 4.20pm to look around. In a pen towards the end of the building was an extremely stressed stallion. He had been moved away from the other horses for their safety. He was in such a frenzy that he was dripping with sweat and covered in wounds.

 

 

 

Day 6

 

We headed back to the control post to record further observations. My eyes immediately sought out the stressed stallion. Although he was no longer soaked, he was still sweaty and constantly fidgeting. Several times he was seen standing with his right foreleg bent in the empty water trough, as if this offered some kind of relief – by the end of the week we’d seen several horses adopting this abnormal position. I was overwhelmed by what we saw in such a short space of time, so many horses suffering needlessly. I was exhausted– I couldn’t imagine how these terrified, battered and dehydrated horses must feel.

 

 

 

 

Day 7

 

The end of our field trip and time to begin putting together the evidence. As I tried to get some much needed sleep on the plane, the scared confused faces continued to haunt me and I became more convinced than ever that we must do everything we can to end this - the single biggest abuse of horses in Europe.

 

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