Over the past year, the Commission of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT) has analyzed the implementation of EU rules by the Member States and their correct application by the European Commission.
The draft report and the relevant recommendations will be voted on in committee on December 2 and submitted for adoption in January 2022. The recommendations of the inquiry constitute a relevant document, especially given the process of revising the transport regulations, for which a new legislative proposal is expected in 2023. The Eurogroup for Animals and its members have campaigned for decades to end the transport of live animals and in the White Paper Transport of live animals: it's time to change the rules , we explained how the new transport regulations should respect the basic principles of reducing, refining and replacing the transport living by trading meat / carcasses of genetic material, as recommended by the European Food of Food Safety, the World Organization for Animal Health and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe.
Yet each year more than a billion animals are transported within the EU and from the EU to third countries and the current transport regulation does not guarantee their effective protection.
“Over the years, we have witnessed endless and preventable suffering: animals crammed into overcrowded and unsuitable trucks and ships, and animals unfit for transport, such as pregnant, young or injured animals. The tragedies at sea and on the road have given the ANIT Committee plenty of evidence to stop live transport, ” commented Reineke Hameleers, CEO of the Eurogroup for Animals.
“The way animals are transported in the EU is heartbreaking, devastating and incredibly brutal and cruel. The ANIT committee's investigation confirmed that animals are currently not protected during transport and that changes are urgently needed. I expect my colleagues from the ANIT committee to send a strong message to the European Parliament: long-distance transport, export of live animals and transport of vulnerable animals, such as unweaned animals, so-called end-of-career animals and pregnant animals must be stopped. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we let this continue, when we have the power to stop it, ” added Anja Hazekamp, MEP (La GAUCHE), vice-president of the ANIT commission and president of the intergroup. on animal welfare and conservation.
“EU citizens and civil society ask us to make animal welfare a priority. This cannot happen if the live transport continues as before. We need shorter distances and times and specific species and category transport rules, a ban on the transport of unweaned animals and more support for local and regional systems. And the massive export of live animals to third countries must end ” , concluded Tilly Metz, MEP (Verts / ALE, LU), president of the ANIT commission and vice-president of the intergroup on welfare. being and conservation of animals.
On December 2, ANIT members will be able to help build a truly sustainable transport system by supporting key amendments to the ANIT report and recommendations. To ensure that the health and welfare of people and animals are effectively taken into account in the revised transport regulations, the Eurogroup for Animals urges:
- Replace the land transport of farm animals with the export of meat, carcasses and genetic material to third countries.
- Introduce species and category-specific maximum travel times with a maximum travel time of 8 hours for adult cattle, pigs and sheep, and 4 hours for poultry and rabbits.
- Prohibit the transport of unweaned and pregnant animals (for which 40% of the pregnancy stage has already passed).
- Introduce species-specific requirements for the commercial movement of fish and invertebrates, laboratory animals, equines, cats and dogs.
- Introduce clear definitions and species-specific rules for intra-EU animal movements, including more stringent and centralized systems for the approval of livestock vessels used to move animals within the EU.
NOTES
Read the Transport white paper
live animals: it's time to change the rules Read the report
A strategy to reduce and replace the transport of live animals Check the
Investigations on the transport of live animals Surveys excerpts are available on our
YouTube channel The commission of inquiry on the protection of animals during transport
(ANIT)
was established in June 2020 to investigate alleged violations in the application of the "Transport Regulation" (Council Regulation ( EC) No 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport).
Posted on 2021-12-02 15:31
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