End cruel animal transports

To: European Commission, European Parliament, EU Member States

Every day, thousands of animals are transported under horrible conditions, throughout Europe and beyond. They are transported to be slaughtered, fattened or used for breeding. These journeys can last tens of hours and sometimes even days, often with a lack of space and without water and proper food. All species of farm animals, including their offsprings, are subject to this cruel trade: pigs, cows, sheep, donkeys, chicken, and horses. The majority of trucks are not even adequately equipped; hence compromising animal welfare severely.

They suffer from stress, heat, cold, injuries, lack of space and some even die. Not even the most vulnerable are spared from this cruelty. Unweaned offsprings are the most affected by this cruelty. They are forced to stand for hours and days in crowded trucks without adequate milk substitute feed or even rest.

The situation is even worse when animals are transported outside the EU, where journeys last days often without any rest. The time has come to end this cruelty! We need EU laws that only allow long distance transport in exceptional cases and that favour slaughtering on site.

Animal welfare is currently one of the main concerns for EU citizens. Therefore we call upon on the European Commission, the Parliament and the Member states:

• To set a maximum journey time and distance to slaughter at 4 hours and 300km;
• To reduce the maximum journey time and distance even further for unweaned animals such as young calves to max 50 km and 1,5 hours;
• To correctly implement the Regulation 1/2005 aiming at harmonising standards of animal welfare.