European Livestock

Naturewatch, together with other European animal welfare organisations, has for years been lobbying hard for improvements in the European live transport legislation. It did not, for example, cover the welfare of animals in markets and holding stations, which allowed horrific abuses such as those revealed in the Belgian markets by undercover teams from Animals’ Angels in 2001 [as reported by Naturewatch]. Other inadequacies included no regulation regarding the ventilation, temperature or watering facilities on the transport lorries, and a lack of consistent enforcement of the rules throughout the EU Member States.

Finally, on 22 November 2004, the European Council of Agriculture Ministers agreed upon a number of improvements, which included the following:
 

• The old Directive, which was open to interpretation by individual Member States, is being replaced by a Regulation, which means that all Member States must abide by the same standards.
  
  
• By 2009 all vehicles must be fitted with satellite navigation systems so that they can be monitored to ensure the drivers are allowing animals the necessary rest breaks and sticking to their proper route plans.
  
  
• All vehicles will have ventilation, temperature control systems and watering facilities.
  
  
• Horses will travel in individual stalls on journeys over eight hours and unbroken horses will not be allowed to travel on long journeys at all.
  
  
• Drivers and other staff will have to sit exams to gain certificates of competence in animal handling and transport.
  
  
• The law will be extended to cover assembly centres, markets and slaughterhouses, and proper training programmes for staff will be introduced.
  
  
• There will be stricter monitoring and enforcement of journey plans and responsibility for animal welfare.

By 2009 all vehicles must be fitted with satellite navigation systems, so they can be monitored to ensure the drivers are allowing animals the necessary rest breaks, and sticking to their route plans.

 
While the new Regulation is welcomed by animal welfare groups to a certain extent, it still does not address crucial issues such as overall journey times and space allocation. The welfare groups have for years been asking for an eight-hour limit to the overall time animals can be transported. In fact, the European Parliament itself in March 2004 recommended that a nine-hour limit should be introduced for animals travelling to slaughter. However, the Council rejected this and instead is introducing the following limits:
 

• nine hours, followed by one hours rest, then a further nine hours for very young animals
  
  
• 24 hours with permanent access to water for pigs
  
  
• 24 hours with watering every eight hours for horses
  
  
• 14 hours, followed by one hours rest, then a further 14 hours for cattle, sheep and goats.

These sequences can be repeated if animals are unloaded, fed, watered and rested for at least 24 hours in approved locations.

The new Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou, was quoted as saying, ‘My ambition would have been to reduce travelling times and stocking densities further, but Member States remain deeply split on this.’ This sums up the problem – for many countries an eight-hour journey limit is simply not acceptable. When a delegation from Naturewatch visited Brussels in 2002, we were told by Struan Stevenson, MEP for Scotland, that a nine-hour limit would simply not be possible for his farmer constituents whose animals’ journeys from the Orkneys and Shetlands took at least that amount just to get to the UK mainland.

The new Regulation receives a luke-warm welcome from animal welfare groups, as it still does not address crucial issues such as overall journey times and space allocation.

 
However, welfarists remain convinced that an eight-hour limit is the only humane way forward. There is a commitment in the new Regulation to review these issues, but this will not be until four years after the Regulation comes into effect, i.e. 2011. So, although the future looks brighter for European livestock, there is still a long way to go.

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Still a long journey ahead