The photo of a tied-up horse laid out in an uncovered truck misleads the reader to understand that this is the normal practice of how the animals are treated at the abattoir in Marsa.
 The normal practice is that an owner would call a Veterinary Surgeon to check on his animal when the state of that animal is poor.
Had the owner called the veterinary surgeon most probably the veterinarian would have put down the horse humanely on site.
In this particular case the horse shown in the photo was in poor health such that it could not stand on its own feet. The owner of the horse hauled the animal with straps on to the open truck by means of a crane to transport it to the abattoir in Marsa.
In order to avoid unnecessary suffering of the horse the emergency slaughter unit at the abattoir dealt with this case immediately.
The subsequent photos of the dead horse and sow show the animals being loaded by a fork-lifting device into special skips which are used for processing by the incinerator plant.
Unfortunately these photos could have given the impression that the horse was being handled when still alive, this was not the case as the animals were put down humanely some time before and according to international Animal Welfare practices. These dead animals were being prepared for transfer to the incineration facility.

Dr. Mario Spiteri
Director
Animal Welfare Promotion & Services