Onekind disappointed by Commission response to animal transport concerns

OneKind has today expressed disappointment that a report from the European Commission recommends making no changes to legislation on animal transport (Council Regulation 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport). www.onekind.org

Libby Anderson, Policy Director at OneKind, said: “In the report, the Commission insists that the Regulation has brought about substantial welfare benefits to transported animals, but we believe that any improvements that have been made are far more modest. An external study on behalf of the Commission1 also reached this conclusion.”

At present animals can be transported vast distances across Europe for fattening or slaughter, and these journeys often cause severe welfare problems and suffering. The animals are at risk from thirst, hunger, overcrowding and communicable disease. In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority stated that large scale transports should be changed. Transport of breeding animals should be avoided by the use of biological materials such as semen or embryos, and travel to slaughter should be replaced by local slaughter and the transport of meat products and carcasses. OneKind is part of the 8Hours campaign calling on maximum journey times to slaughter to be limited to 8 hours, and which so far has collected around 900,000 out of an expected 1 million signatures to present to the Commission early next year.. www.8hours.eu

Libby Anderson adds: “We want the Commission to bring the Regulation in line with current scientific knowledge, above all on journey times, where an eight hour limit is essential. Space allowances, deck heights and required temperatures on board vehicles are also in need of review, as are the transport requirements of specific species such as rabbits, horses, cats and dogs.

“There is provision for all this to take place and it is important that the Regulation is made to work more effectively. In particular, we are worried that not enough is being done to enforce the Regulation and we would have hoped for the report to recommend more rigorous inspections, especially in Member States which repeatedly fail to implement the legislation. We would also like a review of the way Satellite Navigation systems are used, as these should provide a powerful and effective way of tracking journey times, but at present do not provide data in ‘real time’ to a central EU database.”