When investigators arrived at the weekly cattle auction there were 3 trucks with double deck trailers parked in the parking lot. 1800 head of cattle of assorted ages and breeds were moved through the auction ring that day. The pens were clean and all had hay and water. The animals were moved calmly by workers on horseback. Also in the pen area were 38 horses left from a production horse sale that had taken place over the weekend. A few of them were thin and one horse had an injured left eye. Two men were rounding them up and moving them closer to the loading dock, were a purple Peterbilt truck with a double deck trailer was parked. The trucking company was Joe Western (DOT # 542950) from Diamond, MO.Investigators observed the men 
loading 33 of the horses on the double deck trailer. None of the horses had USDA slaughter tags attached. The horses very extremely agitated and didn’t want go into the trailer. Several were slipping and falling on the steep ramp. Horse would stop at the entrance causing the horses behind them having to move backwards on the ramp. It took over an hour and excessive use of their whips to make all horses enter the trailer. Investigators saw the horses kicking the trailer sides and hitting their heads on the low ceilings, it was awful. No horse should be transported that way. At 10:30 am the truck pulled out of the auction and headed to I-40 east. The driver pulled into a Pilot fuel stop to weigh the truck and trailer and then continued on I-40 east to Hwy 287 south. 
Animals’ Angels will continue to address this issue when talking to USDA officials and legislators. A complete ban of double deck trailers for all horse transports is long overdue.
