According to the NVWA, violations have occurred more often at collection centers in recent years, such as the transport of animals that were not worthy of transport. But she had not anticipated the abuses that are now coming to light.
“If we monitor these types of companies, we do not see such images. Then there should be standard camera surveillance, but that is not yet the case,” the spokesperson explains.
NVWA is conducting further investigation
In any case, the abuses are a reason for the NVWA to start a further investigation. It is still unclear what the possible consequences are for the North Holland company, according to the spokesperson.
“We must first study the images thoroughly,” he says. “Based on that, we will see what should be done with the company.” He also cannot confirm whether the company had previously been reported to the authority for violations.
In addition, the NVWA does not make any statements about the legality of filming in stables by the Ongehoord research group. “It is not up to us to find out anything about that. We look at the content of the images and decide on that basis whether we want to act. Whether the images have been obtained lawfully or not, that is really up to the judge.”
The owner of VVC Noord-Holland has announced that he is further considering whether he will take legal action against the research group and the way in which these images were made.
Boonstra says he will not hand over the images to the NVWA, because, according to Ongehoord, the regulator can see for itself every day what goes wrong in collection centers. He finds the shocked reaction of the NVWA unbelievable. “They see this every day,” he says. “They could have seen it yesterday and tomorrow too. They don’t need our images for that.”