The EU Parliament calls for better protection of animals during transport. At the plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday, MEPs adopted the report of a committee of inquiry that found serious shortcomings in the implementation of the existing animal transport rules. The aim is to put pressure on the EU Commission to improve the rules and ensure better controls. So far, pigs, cattle and other animals in trucks and ships often suffer from heat, cold, thirst, hunger, stress and injuries.
The EU Parliament is therefore now calling for infringement proceedings against member states that do not remedy the problems, as well as transport bans in extreme temperatures. According to MEPs, drivers should also be obliged to alert a veterinarian immediately if animals are injured in the transport. MEPs are also proposing surveillance cameras for trucks and a ban on transporting very young calves, albeit with exceptions.
A transport ban for young animals of all species under five weeks of age, as proposed by the committee of inquiry, could not be pushed through against the opposition of the conservatives and many social democrats and liberals in parliament. The requirement to set a maximum duration for transport for all animal species was also dropped – eight hours in most cases, which animal rights activists had considered particularly important.
The EU investigative committee had worked at great expense for a year and a half. Some of those involved were very disappointed after many of their demands could not be enforced at the last moment. Green MEP Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, for example, abstained from the final vote. “Today we could have done even more for animal welfare,” she said. Above all, a stricter transport time limit would have been important to her.
For the majority of animal species, the currently permitted 29 hours of truck transport and unlimited transport on the ship remain. The Green proposal to limit journey times by truck to eight hours and by ship to 24 hours did not find a majority. “For a majority of the EU Parliament, industrial meat consumption comes before animal welfare,” said the Green Party.
The problems with transport potentially affect a very large number of animals. According to the EU Parliament, more than 1.6 billion live animals were transported within the EU and outside the EU to third countries in 2019. The trade in live animals is an important market: According to the EU Parliament, its value within the EU was 8.6 billion euros in 2018. The trade in live animals with third countries brought in almost three billion euros.