Across the country, it is common to see livestock and poultry being transported in appalling conditions. Livestock and poultry are tightly packed in trucks on their way to markets and slaughterhouses.
The animals are crammed in trucks and transported long distances without food and water, squeezed so tightly that they can hardly breathe.
Cruel transporters tie cattle by their horns and tails to the rails of the truck bed to keep them standing still.
This causes excruciating pain that the poor animals endure until they reach the abattoirs, where they are permanently relieved of their misery.
Some unscrupulous people tie cattle limbs, twist their necks, and tie their heads to their bodies to enable them to cram the hapless animals into cars and on motorcycles that are not authorised to transport livestock.
The sight of cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs mercilessly tied up being transported on motorcycles is shocking to a visitor to the country but is considered normal by many locals due to lengthy exposure to this cruelty.
Many locals have been desensitised and no longer acknowledge the fact that livestock and poultry are living beings that feel pain and can suffer from stress occasioned by mistreatment. Livestock moved on the hoof to markets and slaughterhouses also suffer abuse at the hands of their handlers.
They are forced to move long distances without water amid beatings. Poultry such as chickens and ducks are routinely held upside down during transportation, while others are crammed into car boots where they can barely breathe. This cruelty is also exhibited on farms where some farmhands subject cattle and other livestock to beatings.
Furthermore, cows are separated from their calves thereby denying them the required amount of milk for their proper growth.
Most of the milk is taken from cows and sold to humans while their calves starve. The Uganda Animals (Prevention of Cruelty) Act, Chapter 49, enacted in 1957 and revised in 2000, provides legal measures for preventing cruelty to animals.
It lists several animal cruelty offences, such as physical abuse, neglect, and cruel treatment. However, the laws against cruelty to animals are not properly implemented, with the police, local government, and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries officials sleeping on the job. Some of these officials are compromised after taking bribes from offenders.
The cruelty animals are subjected to before slaughter leads to poor quality meat, according to veterinary experts. They say the meat of stressed animals is dark, tasteless and hard. Experts also say it has a low shelf life.
We call upon the government to crack down on cruelty to animals on farms and those in transit because it not only casts the country in a bad light but also exposes consumers to poor-quality animal products.