Live Exports

I live in Germany. Here, we export high numbers of farm animals. For example, we send over 100,000 pigs to Ukraine and Moldova each year (CIWF, 2013).

In 2015, the European Court of Justice decided that the welfare of animals who are exported from the EU has to be ensured for the whole transport. That is, “Protection for animals under EU law does not stop at the outer borders of the EU. The requirements relating to watering and feeding intervals and duration of journeys and resting periods also apply to those stages of the transport taking place outside the EU.” (Court of Justice of the European Union, 2015).

Then, the animals are taken to the place of destination.

A “place of destination” is the place where an animal is unloaded from a means of transport and either accommodated for at least 48 hours before the time of departure or slaughtered (Chartered Trading Standards Institute, 2018).

Countries like Egypt, Iran, or Turkey import EU animals. However, these countries do not follow EU standards. The European animal welfare associations claim that the judgment from the highest European Court of Justice did not have any effect.“Even though the commission and the member states have been well informed since 2010 of the suffering of animals transported to Turkey, the situation remains unchanged, and the numbers of animals being exported are increasing. The commission and member states are ignoring the core elements of their regulations.” (Baumgärtner, 2017).

A long and painful Journey

The act of letting some European animals get their eyes put out, leg tendons cut, transported and slaughtered in a way, is illegal in Europe. The Animal Welfare Foundation (2017) describes cases of their daily work on their website. For instance, “A truck from Lithuania, loaded with calves, none of them older than eight weeks, who are brought from Poland to Spain. This transport goes through Germany in transit, over a distance of 3000 km…”. It is important to note that Calves are allowed to be transported at the age of two weeks. Every nine hours, the dairy calves have to be unloaded because they need to get electrolyte solution or milk replacers, and this is not possible on a truck. The animal welfare coordinators are following the truck, and after 13 hours nonstop they call the police. The truck had 1200 km ahead, till the next unloading station in France. ​

Conclusion

A sentence that stays with me comes from Jens Kirch (Livestock Export Ltd): ‘’You should keep in mind that there are different kinds of use for these exported animals. There are animals for breeding and slaughtering. Just think about when you are selling cars. If you are selling a Formula 1 vehicle, which will be used to drive races, it has to arrive tip-top. If you are selling a wrecked car, which will be used to be gutted, it is not important if there is a bump more or less on the fender.’’ (Karremann, 2018). I do not even really want to comment on this. I can say that the only solution right now is a vegan lifestyle and pressure on the government. Hopefully, we will not end up at a point where we compare a wrecked car with an eight-week-old baby cow. ​

Word Count: 549 words

References

Animal Welfare Foundation (2017). Poland | Germany | Trailing of three transports with unweaned calves. 17 Jun. Available at: https://www.animal-welfare-foundation.org/einsatzberichte/detailansicht/article/poland-germany-trailing-of-three-transports-with-unweaned-calves-1.html[accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Baumgärtner, I. (2017). Revealed: exported EU animals subject to abuse and illegal conditions. 01 Mar. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/01/revealed-exported-eu-animals-subject-to-abuse-illegal-conditions[accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Chartered Trading Standards Institute (2018). Farm animal transport journey times. Available at: https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/animals-and-agriculture/far m-animal-transport-journey-times [accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Compassion in world farming (CIWF) (2013). Export of live animals from European Union to Non-EU countries. May. Available at: https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/4037267/Export_of_live_animals_from_eu_to_noneu_countries.pdf[accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Court of Justice of the European Union (2015). Protection for animals under EU law does not stop at the outer borders of the EU. 23 Apr. Available at: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2015-04/cp150043en.pdf[accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Karremann, M. (2018). Geheimsache Tiertransporte. Available at: https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/37-grad/37-geheimsache-tiertransporte-100.html[accessed 29 Nov. 2018].