700,000 EU citizens sign petition to stop live exports

Support is growing among European citizens for a stop to be put to the export of live animals from countries such as Ireland.

Eurogroup for Animals – a federation of 48 animal rights organisations across Europe – has begun a campaign to end the long-distance transport of live animals.

The campaign, called Stop the Trucks, comes in the wake of a five-year investigation carried out between 2010 and 2015 by animal rights organisations Eyes on Animals and TSB/AWF, which found that 70% of the trucks inspected at the Bulgarian border, a common exit door from the EU, were breaching the EU Transport Regulation.

Eurogroup is calling for the transport of meat instead of live animals. It says remaining live animal transportation must be limited to eight hours for mammals and four hours for poultry.

So far, the group has garnered 700,000 signatures and as result of this campaign, six EU Governments (Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium) have already called upon the European Commission to revise the EU Transport Regulation.

Ireland under the spotlight

Ireland is among the EU countries under the spotlight after reports emerged last month of Irish cattle being unloaded at a port in Turkey with matted hair thick with faeces from the two-week journey. Exports of cattle from Ireland to Turkey began last year and the move was welcomed by farm organisations as giving a boost to Irish cattle farmers.

Comment

The ICSA told the Irish Farmers Journal that it recently met Animals International, an organisation which had concerns over live exports to Turkey.

Following the meeting Patrick Kent, ICSA president, said he advised Animal International to engage with Turkish authorities to establish how they maximise animal welfare and ensure best practice in their slaughtering facilities.

The president also said the live export trade is vital to Irish farmers to ensure competition for the Irish livestock sector and that the Department of Agriculture is “scrupulous about ensuring the highest possible level of welfare for animals travelling by ship”.

The IFA declined to comment.