Libya – Letter to President of the Agriculture Council and Commissioners Kyriakides and Wojciechowski
Ireland exports thousands of young bulls and some heifers to Libya every year. Not only do they endure a long, arduous sea journey but Libya is a war torn country with no effective government in place and little in the way of animal welfare legislation. It is too dangerous for welfare NGOs to film in Libya’s slaughterhouses but filming in other countries in North Africa and the Middle East shows that slaughter almost always involves extreme suffering and almost never complies with the OIE welfare standards. It is unlikely that slaughter in Libya is significantly different.
Conflict has been increasing in recent months with allegations of chemical weapons being used and fighting is particularly bad around the main ports, which is exactly where the livestock vessels go. Irish citizens are strongly advised against visiting Libya because it is too dangerous – it is absurd that we are exporting live animals there. EFI has been lobbying the Irish government to cease all live export to Libya but to no avail.
On 8th May 2020 EFI signed a joint letter with over 30 animal welfare NGOs to the President of the Agriculture Council and Commissioners Kyriakides and Wojciechowski calling for an end to live export to Libya. You can view the letter below.
Letter to Commission re Art 13 TFEU and live exports to Libya
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