The dark and twisted truth of importing and exporting animals

Almost 70 – 75 % of the world population eats animal products, so you are probably eating a sandwich that has beef in it or chicken while reading this. But do you ever wonder how that meat ends up on your plate? That piece of meat has had a very long journey but before ending up on your plate, it was an innocent life. However, seeing the journey of that piece of meat is no easy feat because I’m betting there are thousands of people who do not want you to know about that journey. Because the truth is quite dark and twisted, they will do everything they can to stop you from knowing about that journey. Because they are getting super rich and the public, knowledge of this journey would stop that. All right, what am I exactly saying? I am saying that a piece of meat is a product of unimaginable suffering and pain. And it’s time everyone knows about this. I am talking about the importing and exporting of animals, and that may sound like an innocent name but behind public view goes something very disturbing and unimaginable.

We think animals that are farmed for meat are killed in the country and for the exporting part, the meat is shipped to other countries. Due to certain religious reasons of the countries that are consumers, this practice is not done. Let us take the EU as an example. The European Union exports many (live) animals to Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. The European Court of Justice says that the welfare of animals does not end at EU borders but animal welfare organizations such as EuroGroup for Animals have exposed the truth to the EU, which is that the conditions the animals are kept in are horrible. And the EU admitted it has no control over what happens there. That’s just one example of thousands. However before they even get to the location where they are slaughtered in a horrific way, they have to endure intense pain and suffering. How, you ask? Well, it is because of the living conditions in the places where they are traveling. Some countries import animals from each other by road and sometimes by sea. And often they don’t consider animal welfare standards, just to save cost. They load the animals on trucks and mostly those trucks don’t even have enough food and water for the animals. The trucks drive thousands of miles and when the food and water runs out, that can be a huge problem. They have to spend days, perhaps weeks without food or water. Many of them die before even reaching their destination. And the dead bodies are not removed from the car which causes bacteria to grow and spread. It also causes various types of fungi that could be dangerous to the lives of the animals. And sometimes diplomatic problems can break out between the countries that cause a massive traffic jam of trucks that were supposed to cross the border. In some cases, they have to wait for months, before they even cross the border. This results in the majority dying a very painful death on the truck itself before even reaching the slaughterhouse. Sometimes, this is not even legal. For example, German police once discovered a truck was shipping baby calves, the calves were taken away from their mother at an early age. They still needed the mother’s milk or a special milk that was created artificially to feed baby calves. German police stopped the truck just in time and saved many innocent lives.

Some countries export and import animals to each other by sea as well, and just like the trucks, they don’t consider animal welfare standards. In the sea, many things can happen. The temperature can rapidly change, and there can be storms and more. The animals are crammed into small spaces on the ship, which causes overcrowding which causes the death of many animals. Also, diseases can be spread because they are kept dangerously near each other. Also, mostly the dead bodies are not removed. And if they are removed they are thrown into the ocean polluting sea life and likely killing many marine life by increased levels of ammonia caused by the dead bodies. Due to rapid temperature changes, in most cases, their body cannot adapt to it and die. As we see, many animals die even before they are slaughtered painfully. And so after all the suffering and pain the survivors endure they die a very painful and horrific death, all for just money and profit.

It feels easy to give up in front of such a daunting problem. But there is hope, take the EuroGroup for Animals which I mentioned earlier. One of their main projects is to stop the slaughter of these animals altogether, which saves possibly millions of innocent lives. In addition, many other animal activists care about fixing this problem. And thanks to them, world leaders are starting to pay attention to this problem. In some countries. The methods of transport have become more humane and in many countries, veganism is being encouraged. As of 2023, 88 million people are officially vegan. However, it is important to note that 88 million people are just 1.1% of the world’s population. But this is an achievement nonetheless and I predict the number of people who are vegan will continue to grow. Nations all around the world need to pay attention to this problem. We all have to work together to fix this problem, by doing so we will be saving millions of innocent lives. Animal activists need to raise their voices to encourage veganism and a more kind world. I know that if we keep on giving enough effort, we will be able to save maybe even billions of lives and live in a cruelty-free world.