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Ban 'cruel' animal exports, demands MP

 

The government should work towards a total ban on the 'cruel and

unnecessary' export of live farm animals, the MP for Dover said.

 

Labour's Gwyn Prosser said animals should be sent to slaughter houses as

near as possible to the farms where they were reared and only meat should be

exported. The trade in live animals exported from Britain had more than

doubled to over one million in 1999, he told MPs in a short debate.

 

He urged the government to persuade the European Union (EU) to act. The

government should also sit down with farmers' leaders to work out a phased

voluntary withdrawal from the live export trade and seek an opt-out for

Britain from the EU's rules which permit live animal exports.

 

'More than 80 per cent of British people want this trade ended. The

established ferry companies have stopped taking it. The ports don't want to

handle it. Ministers have expressed their clear preference for meat to be

transported on the hook rather than on the hoof. In the light of all of

this, I strongly urge the government to vigorously promote the welfare of

animals in transit in the immediate term and bring about a total ban on this

cruel and unnecessary trade in the longer term,' he said.

 

Mr Prosser said as a former merchant navy officer he had seen for himself

the way animals were treated on ships. 'When I was sailing on deep sea

vessels, I regularly witnessed the live animal ships as they discharged

their miserable cargoes in Middle East ports.'

 

Last August British sheep had been left in a truck in the blistering heat of

the Italian port of Bari for 48 hours, despite pleas by CWF to open the

truck. A total of 115 British lambs and 45 French sheep died. Of three Greek

abattoirs visited by CWF last year, two made no attempt to stun animals

before slitting their throats, which is illegal under EU law, another failed

to stun them properly.

 

He also highlighted the annual outdoor ritual slaughter of British sheep

sent to France for a Muslim festival. These animals were not stunned before

their throats were cut and they were 'often left to bleed to death in

agony', he said.

 

Neither the European Commission nor the French authorities took any

meaningful action to stop these illegal activities, he said.