 Each week over 100 lorries crammed with horses arrive at the Italian border. Many will have travelled almost 1,500 miles, often without water, food or rest, contrary to European Union law. A large number will suffer serious injuries en-route - some will collapse resulting in a few being trampled to death!
Certain countries in Europe, predominantly France, Belgium and Italy, consume horsemeat. This results in a massive live transportation trade involving many European countries. Animal welfare groups, and the UK's general public, have long opposed the live export trade. It has never been necessary to tackle this issue in the UK as the rules preventing the export of live horses for meat are already established. Sadly, no such rules are in place in any other European countries. Horse traders scour Europe to find the cheapest animals and, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, their attention has focused on the newly emerged trading opportunities with these countries. Recently, Italian horse traders have centered their attention on the horses in Lithuania. This has resulted in horrendously long journeys for the horses as they are forced to endure a crossing of at least six international borders. In 2000, Lithuania exported just under 11,000 horses for slaughter, which equates to around 500 lorries (400 lorries in 1999). |
 In Autumn of 1999, Naturewatch funded a major investigation into the export of live horses from Lithuania to Italy. The German organisation Animals' Angels, who have been monitoring live exports throughout Europe for a number of years, gave expert guidance to the Lithuanian State Veterinary Service, Lithuanian Society for the Protection of Animals (LiSPA), Lithuanian television and Ben Noreikis (our full-time representative and co-ordinator in Lithuania) in their investigations. Following the intitial investigation, including hard hitting video evidence, a series of campaigns were launched in October 1999, February 2000 and January 2001, in order to address the serious welfare issues. - We exposed, on national Lithuanian television and in the press, the horrific reality of the live export of Lithuanian horses and the terrible cruelty endured by these animals - everyone in Lithuania knew about this once hidden trade;
- We funded an investigation into the live export of Lithuanian horses which exposed the terrible cruelty;
- Investigation results were presented to the authorities and backed up with photographs and video footage;
- Naturewatch supporters sent over 9,000 letters of complaint to the Italian Ambassador in London;
- A meeting was held with the Italian Embassy in London to discuss our grave concerns.
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After serving their owners well for many years, these two happy, healthy horses will probably end up at one of Lithuania's collection points and be exported to Italy for the meat industry. |
We were delighted when our campaigning activities brought positive results for Lithuania's horses.
In Lithuania - After studying our reports, the Lithuanian State Veterinary Service called a press conference and as a direct result of these findings the government introduced strict new welfare measures for horses:
- the introduction of an animal welfare checklist for border inspection officials that will include checks on ventilation, loading density, bedding, feed/water, health certificates, quality of fittings in vehicle.
- route plans will be scrutinized and clearly show when and where rest stops will take place - all lorries carrying horses are ordered to unload and rest the animals for two 24 hour periods en-route where they will be fed and watered;
- veterinary inspections are to be more thorough and no export licenses will be issued for horses that are unfit to travel;
- upon their return, lorry drivers must submit a route plan accompanied by veterinary certificates issued at the borders to prove the animals were in good health throughout the journey.
The Lithuanian transport companies, stung by the criticism, promised full compliance and promised that there would be two people on each transport lorry - a driver and a trained animal operative who would be responsible for the welfare of the horses. To further enhance this commitment by the transport companies, the Lithuanian government later introduced a mandatory training programme for the drivers and animal operative to include the welfare needs of the animals and the action to be taken in the case of an emergency. A certificate is issued to each operator and any driver or attendant who is unable to produce his certificate at the exit border will be refused permission to leave Lithuania. Violations will be subject to severe penalties.
In Italy - Following our meeting with the Italian Embassy, the authorities in Rome promised action and all the necessary monitoring procedures were introduced to ensure full compliance with European Union welfare regulations. We were delighted when in June 2000 official confirmation of this was received.
In June 2000, the lobbying efforts of Italian welfare society LAV (Lega Anti-Vivisezione), the German group Animals' Angels, Compassion in World Farming, Naturewatch, and others, led to official resting stations, 24-hour manning of Italian borders and additional veterinarian staff at the borders.
More Good News - Slovenia and the Czech Republic responded positively to the horrors of live horse exports by introducing strict new rules. They will not allow passage of any exporter through their territory that is not in full compliance with European Union rules on the welfare of animals during transport.
Rogue Drivers - Unfortunately, the rogue driver seems never to be too far away. From falsifying documents to outright bribery, some will do anything to complete their journey in the fastest time possible. It’s a lot more profitable to complete 5 journeys loaded with animals each month than 4 journeys. The only way this is possible is by refusing to stop to rest and feed the animals. (The rules state that there must be a 24-hour break after 24 hours journey time). Unfortunately, it will always be possible to get away with breaking the rules - one way or another - until Live Export ends. |
Background Information
European Union legislation states that after every 8 hours of travel the horses must be given food and water. They are allowed to travel for 24 hours before having a 24 hour break. Both the exporters and the Italian border officials blatantly disregard these laws and they know that by avoiding EU countries they are avoiding prosecution too. As usual, it comes down to money and how cheaply the animals can be transported. Time is money: the faster the horse traders can get the animals to their destination, the more journeys they can complete each month. At the point of departure each lorry load of horses (approximately 20 at a time) has a value of £5,000, but when the lorry arrives in Italy the retail value becomes an astounding £70,000. The countries of destination, and their traders, do not want live export replaced by the export of chilled meat because fresh meat can be sold at a larger premium over chilled/frozen meat. With horses crammed into lorries many are injured and some even die during the gruelling journey, which lasts up to 4 days. The horses are only given one short break of about 2 hours, they are rarely unloaded and are lucky if they receive adequate food and water. The Italians do not care about enforcing EU legislation and have maintained that EU rules only apply once the transporter has arrived on EU territory (Lithuania only joined the EU in 2004).
Ultimately, our main aim is to see an end to live animal transport from Eastern Europe by encouraging the export of chilled meat instead but, sadly, this will be a long and hard battle. In Lithuania, although local slaughter is possible the financial return for the farmer would be extremely small and could not possibly be compared to the average of US $350 per animal currently paid by the exporters! The same financial situation would apply if the horses were used in the manufacture of pet food (if the pet food industry was interested in using horse meat - but it's not!). The third option of local slaughter (abattoirs would need to meet EU standards), where the meat is chilled/frozen and then exported to Italy, presents enormous financial risks. These risks predominately revolve around the selling of a product to the specialised market of Italy as neither Lithuania nor its neighbours eat horse meat. The Italians would need to be persuaded to accept chilled/frozen meat but, when approached, the Italians vehemently opposed the idea insisting that consumers demand fresh meat. Of course, it also provides employment as Italy has a large number of abattoirs - many of which have been upgraded with EU funds.
In the meantime, we needed to focus on more strict and rigid enforcement of existing EU animal protection laws.
Please also see European Livestock as our campaigning activities to help Lithuania's horses overlapped with our work to improve conditions in Europe during transportation and at markets. |