2024 – a year in review

Once again the year was dominated by live export, which saw a 14% increase in cattle export including 11 shipments of bulls to Morocco, as well as two shipments of bulls and pregnant heifers to Algeria. Unweaned calf export decreased by 11%, or 19,000, but export outside the EU increased by 53%, with the volume at over 31,000 cattle, and a total of 15 shipments. Countries outside the EU included Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Israel and Tunisia.

Here is an overview of our activities during the year.

Formal complaints, billboard campaign, live export protests and more!

January

Formal complaint to Commission

As we all know, calf export is being conducted in breach of European legislation because the calves are not being fed within the required timeframe. I submitted a formal complaint to the Commission in 2021 but it was not upheld, and the reason given was that I had not provided evidence the calves are not being fed. In June 2022 the Commission conducted an audit of the export of unweaned calves from Ireland and concluded that EC Regulation 1/2005 on the protection of animals during long distance transport is being breached. The report was not published until December 2023 and no action had been taken by the Commission so I submitted another formal complaint on 14th January 2024, using the Commission’s own audit report as evidence the calves are not being fed. I have not received a response to my complaint so I have now submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman.

Illness and injury during sea journeys highlighted

On 21st January a shipment of young bulls arrived in Israel after 10 days at sea and their conditon was shocking, the worst I’ve ever seen. Many of the bulls were riddled with ringworm, many were showing signs of respiratory illness, at least two were blind in one eye from corneal ulcers. I saw bloody knees, evidence of diarhhea and bulls caked in faeces. It was pretty horrific and yet another letter of compaint was sent to the Minister. I also informed the Israeli minister of agriculture as ringworm is highly contagious, as well as being a zoonoses. No media would touch the story, frustratingly, but I did manage to get on The Last Word with Matt Cooper, along with a senator who knew nothing about the footage or live export and just spouted the usual generic waffle.

February

Joint complaint

in January two shipments of cattle had departed for Algeria, including one shipment of pregnant heifers to boost their dairy industry. This was organised by a new player in the field – cows.ie They were very excited about their new business venture and had Agriland film the loading and do a feature on it. Of course they didn’t film the cows unloading, but they did show the vessel, ramp and a truck waiting to load the cows that was totally unsuitable for transporting livestock. It was more like a construction truck than livestock transporter. We also have footage of cattle arriving at Haifa Port from Ireland being transported in trucks with gaps wide enough for limbs to be stuck through them. So we submitted a joint complaint to Minister McConalogue, with 5 other NGOs because the trucks seen being used in both Algeria and Israe are clearly in breach of Article 3(c) of EC Regulation /2005 on the protection of animals during transport that stipulates that the means of transport are designed, constructed, maintained and operated so as to avoid injury and suffering and ensure the safety of the animals.

March

Billboard campaign

In March we ran another billboard campaign to raise awareness of live export outside the EU and keep the pressure on and12 billboards went up around the country. I used an image of a young Irish bull shipped to Israel who really had an impact on me and I didn’t want him to be forgotten. He looked so young and pathetic standing shivering in the truck after being unloaded from the vessel, with a snotty nose, ringworm and a bloody knee. He was so small, he looked less than a year old.


Live export protest – Rosslare Port

At the end of March we also held a protest at Rosslare Port. The majority of exported calves travel via Stena Line ferries from Rosslare to Cherbourg and we have been putting pressure on Stena for years to stop this. Stena stopped transporting livestock from the UK 30 years ago, largely due to public pressure, so we are focusing on them for now, rather than Irish Ferries. We saw several livestock trucks arrive at the port, full of bawling calves, some four hours before the ferry was due to leave for the 18 hours journey to France. The lenght of time these vulnerable animals are forced to go without food is unacceptable and we will continue highlighting how Stena Line is not only enabling this cruelty but also profiting from it.

Submission on animal transport proposal

As many of you know, the European Commission is working on new live transport regulations. After two years of discussion an ambitious proposal was voted on by the commitee members, however this has since been watered heavily. One major concern is that the sea journey will not count as journey time. That is absurd. It’s not as bumpy as being on a road but the animals are still trapped in a truck, unweaned cavles cannot be fed, and motion stress can be worse at sea than on the road. There is not much on export outside the EU. The Commission is not taking into consideration the poor animal welfare standards in the destination countries particularly at slaughter. You can read our submission here.

May

Shipment blocked!

Thanks to some super sleuthing by my colleague Jane, we managed to block a shipment of cattle going out! Livestock vessel Sarah M was due to arrive at Greenore on 30th April but it never managed to dock. It’s complicated but investigations had discovered in 2022 that the Sarah M no longer met the criteria for authorisation as it’s classification society had been downgraded to medium performing. We notified Minister McConalogue and were told it didn’t matter basically, which was shocking. When the vessel was due to have it’s certificate renewed it changed it’s classification society to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, which is ranked as high performing. The owner must have thought this was a clever move to get reapproved in Ireland, not realising that EU sanctions against Russia prohibit any vessel classified by the RMRS from docking at any EU port. I wrote to the Minister informing him of this, and copied the DAFM legal services on the email. But they ignored me and carried out an inspection of the vessel in Spain around 27th April before it headed to Greenore. Myself and Jane contacted various authorities including the Department of Trade and Marine Survey Office, and the Department of Trade stopped the vessel from docking! It did an about turn just as it reeached Greenore and scuttled away empty! What is really shocking is the fact that Minister McConalogue was happy to break the law to let this shipment go ahead. Of course it didn’t stop the shipment going ahead, another livestock vessel arrived some weeks later. But it caused the exporters, vessel owners and the authorities a lot of hassle and expense and gave the animals a few more weeks of comfort before their nightmare began. You can read more about it here: Russian Class Used by Activists to Block Livestock Carrier from Ireland

July

Live export protest – Dublin

We held another live export protest on 8th July outside Agriculture House where I delivered a petition to the Minister calling for an end to live export outside the EU. The Minister would not meet me himself and despite emails to his office looking for a response to the petition to date I have received no response. There was a good turnout at the protest but the only coverage ot got was an article in Agriland.

September

Dutch Parliament discussion

We were invited to join a roundtable discussion on the long distance transport proposals in the House of Representatives in the Hague (Dutch Parliament) on 26th September. Jane Roberts attended (online) and made it clear that the proposals are not sufficient and that there is no humane way to transport unweaned calves long disance. Lesley Moffat, director of Eyes on Animals was also present. All conversations were in Dutch so fair play to Jane, it must have been difficult not being able to understand most of what was being said. The Dutch authorities have announced that they will no longer import calves from Ireland from the end of 2025 which is fantastic news as they import the bulk of the calves.

Meeting with Stena Line

We have been putting pressure on Stena Line for years, to stop transporting unweaned calves. In 2019 I met with Ian Hampton, the CEO, at the HQ in London, along with some representatives from Eyes on Animals. The meeting was not successful. As part of a Eurogroup for Animals action a joint letter was sent to Stena Line CEO in July signed by 23 NGOs, urging them to stop transporting unweaned calves. No reply was received. On 30th September I again met with Ian at the London HQ, along with Four Paws (UK) and Dyrevernalliansen (Norway,) who handed over a petition with almost 12,000 signatures. We had an open and frank discussion with Ian and whilst he agreed with us in essence he explained that there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration before any decisions or actions can be taken. He informed us he would have a meeting with Minister McConalogue but he has not been forthcoming since, which is a shame. We have continued communication from our side and will send another joint letter soon. Several members of Eurogroup have agreed to join the campaign and it is great to have so much support. We will keep the pressure on Stena until they give in!

October

RTE Investigates Live export: On the Hoof

In March 2023 RTE Investigates joined our investigation into calf export, with Eyes on Animals, resulting in the groundbreaking exposure of the dairy industry and live export – Milking It: Dairy’s Dirty Secret that was aired in July that year. In March 2024 we conducted another investigation, this time with Eyes on Animals, Dier&Recht and L214. Shocking footage from hidden cameras in the premises of a prominent calf exporter in Killarney exposed rough treatment and abuse of very young calves. Workers were seen hitting calves with paddles and sticks, dragging calves by their ears and tails, some were stomach tubed and given injections and the most horrifying of all was the discovery of a pile of deceased calves outside the shed. I had also discovered that Irish calves exported to Romania had turned up at Haifa Port in Israel with further investigations showing that unweaned calves exported to Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia were also ending up in Israel. Shockingly I then discovered that two trucks of unweaned calves were exported to Libya in May! They travelled by truck to Belgium where they continued the journey by plane. It is truly abhorrent. After months of working with Fran McNulty all of this and more was exposed by RTE in October. There seems to have been little reaction from the authorities other than an investigation is supposedly underway, but they didn’t suspend the exporter featured in the programme. You can read more about the investigation here if you missed it: Breaking: cruelty and suffering in live export exposed again!

Animal Welfare Intergroup meeting

On 24th October I was invited to give a presentation at an Animal Welfare Intergroup meeting in European Parliament in Strasbourg. I was only given 5 minutes but managed to cover all the abuse exposed by RTE Investigates in both programmes, along with all issues around the export of unweaned calves and sea journeys to Morocco and Israel (the two main destinations currently.) I included all the breaches of legislation, along with alternatives for male dairy calves. Unfortunately the other speakers ran way over the 5 minute limit (I was the only one who stuck to it..) so there was no time for questions. However, I have been informed that the Intergroup will be writing to Commissioner Kyriakides on the matters covered.

Eurogroup for Animals

We have been working more closely with Eurogroup for Animals and myself and Jane have joined two subgroups, one on calf export and one on pig farming. There is strength in numbers and as we are such a small group we really need other groups to give us a louder voice. As well as putting pressure on Stena Line to stop carrying unweaned calves we are putting pressure on the Commission to enforce legislation, both in respect to the illegal transport of unweaned calves from Ireland and the EC Pig Directive that is being ignored across all member states. Joints letters in relation to both have been sent to the Commission and we will be continuing other actions in 2025.

That about wraps up the year. I would like to give a special thanks to Susan and Majella who undertook a number of church collections during the year, raising much needed funds, and also to Susan, Sean and Lea for many trips to the ports to capture the shipments of young bulls. It’s so important to get footage of animals loading to raise awareness, and also to ensure these animals are not shipped out in silence and secrecy.

We now have a LinkedIn page and TikTok and I would like to thank Jane, Tara and Lisa for setting these up and for help with social media posts.

Changes to legislation on live transport are still in progress and we are working hard with Eurogroup and many other NGOs to ensure they will be meaningful. Unfulfilled promises by the Commission, such as the End the Cage legislation changes, will also be prioritised in 2025. The court case is still going through the process and, as I said last year, it’s again unlikely to get to a court hearing before the summer. We will keep on keeping on..

Thank you all for your support and I wish you all the best for 2025!

Caroline Rowley, EFI Director

 

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