Animal Rights Activists on Crusade in Belgium Cattle Markets
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Animal rights activists are on a crusade to stop what they see as the cruel treatment of livestock in Belgium cattle markets. Belgium's animal rights organization, the Global Action in the Interest of Animals, says cows are tortured. We get the story now from Belgium's Way Press International. And another warning, you may find some of the pictures in this report disturbing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED WAY PRESS INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the Brussels cattle market, long after the early morning trading. The floors are being swept and washed clean. The few remaining animals are loaded onto the waiting trucks. But however peaceful these cows may seem now, they have, at one time or another, been witnesses to the most cruel aspects of human nature. This footage was shot with a hidden camera by members of GAIA, a virgin animal welfare organization that has long been campaigning against cruelty to animals. In the course of the press conference, GAIA strongly condemned the market organizers for what is perceived as gross negligence on their part. Despite the explicit scenes depicted in the video footage, the reaction for the market organizers was excessively muted, to say the least.</s>PAUL THIELEMANS, ANDERLECHT CATTLE MARKET: These images, indeed, are very hard, and it looks like that there is bad behavior by the merchants; but in fact, it is simply an occasional accident. We have taken all our dispositions until next week to make sure that this couldn't happen any more.</s>MICHEL VANDENBOSCH, GAIA PRESIDENT: Each time went there, we witnessed severe hitting and beating of poor animals with broken legs, being beaten up -- lying down, agonizing, dying even in blood.</s>WAY PRESS INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Another very worrying aspect is the involvement of adolescents, and sometimes, even children, in this hostile violence. The profession may well be handed down from father to son, but the type of behavior depicted here by the younger generation, clearly needs to be stomped out altogether.</s>THEELEMANS: It makes no sense to make people believe that this is the normal way of organizing these live cattle markets. It is not reality, it is media, it is a way to manipulate people.</s>VANDENBOSCH: The market's organizers can still not guarantee that legislation is being respected, and strictly respected, so there is one answer in order to force them to change, and to force them to prove all guarantees, and that is to close down the markets until, until they can prove and guarantee that they respect all legislations.</s>WAY PRESS INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is perhaps not surprising that death threats have been issued against the president of GAIA, but whoever the perpetrators may be, one thing is certain: a way must be found to put an end to this terrible suffering. For this CNN WORLD REPORT, this is Way Press International in Brussels.