Last year was immensely busy for myself and Jane, there was so much going on I can’t cover it all! We had a large number of meetings with the various Eurogroup for Animals groups that we are in, and with other working groups on Stena Line and Brittany Ferries. We were incremental in joint letters relating to shipments to Israel and a near disaster with a livestock vessel travelling from Romania to Israel that had engine failure and took three weeks instead of five days! We kept pressure on the Romanian authorities throughout (Irish cattle are often in these shipments.) Plus joint letters to Stena Line, Brittany Ferries and Commissioner Varhelyi. We held three protests, ran two billboard campaigns, took two trips to Brussels and one to Strasbourg; and the year ended with three public consultations which we wrote substantial submissions for. Here are the main events.
Uncage the animal welfare cage – Strasbourg event
The year started with a trip to Strasbourg on 10th February for myself and Jane for an event organised by L214 as part of their Uncage the Law campaign. The idea was to get MEPs to pledge support for changes to legislation, but the police were really over the top and wouldn’t let us near the building. There were four or five riot vans blocking the view from MEPs walking past and a large number of police with guns.. It was frustrating but we did manage to talk to Maria Walsh and Kathleen Funchion. Kathleen was supportive, Maria not so much…
Ten animal rights NGOs are appealing to the European Parliament in Strasbourg
Dutch TV exposes Bord Bia and the 100% grass fed myth
I was contacted by a Dutch TV programme that was making a programme on the beef industry in Ireland, as they have a lot of Irish beef in their supermarkets. What they didn’t realise is that some of the beef may be from the dairy sector and that most cattle are finished on concentrate to bulk them out before slaughter. They were quite surprised by what I told them. They really showed up Bord Bia and when they visited Ireland they were refused entry into a feedlot, which is rather telling. It’s all in Dutch but there are clips with an Irish farmer and Bord Bia representative with English. I’m on the phone talking. My favourite quote is “you don’t see that in the Bord Bia ads….”
https://npo.nl/start/afspelen/keuringsdienst-van-waarde_90
Stena Line campaign
12th February – we ramped up the Stena campaign by sending another open letter signed by 18 NGOs. It was sent to key members of the management team as well as the CEO. We also ran an email campaign that I’m sure many of you contributed to. I followed up on 11th May. We never got a response, other than an acknowledgment, but Stena Line pulled out of the Rosslare to Cherbourg route altogether at the end of September. I was told by an employee of Stena that they got a new director who doesn’t like all the negative attention and the route wasn’t very profitable anyway so they decided to close it. Our relentless campaigning certainly contributed to this decision so thank you everyone who got involved.
Live export event – Brussels
19th February – one of the main issues with export outside the EU is the brutal slaughter the animals face in the destination countries. We joined a project with Eyes on Animals, Animal Welfare Foundation, Animals International and Compassion in World Farming in getting a video made of footage from numerous investigations in third countries. It included footage from slaughterhouses in Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Türkiye. MEP Anja Hazekamp organised the event in European parliament in Brussels but unfortunately no MEPs came to the event, other than Anja, and Sebastian Everding. It was still a good exercise to highlight the issues.
Video Exposes Animal Welfare Transgressions in EU Trade
Animal Welfare Advocacy Event
On 25th February 2025 I joined a panel discussion on animal welfare advocacy organised by Siobhan Mullan Professor of Animal Welfare and Veterinary Ethics at UCD School of Veterinary Medicine. Other attendees included Mark Dalton UCD Veterinary Ireland Welfare Committee and Oisin Coghlan, CEO of Friends of the Earth. It was at the Museum of Literature in Dublin. I gave a presentation on the main issues around factory farming and live export and the work that we do to advocate for farm animals. Mark Dalton also talked about factory farming and Oisin gave a more general talk on campaiging. A good discussion was had after the presentations with the audience.
Brittany Ferries campaign
In March we received the disappointing news that Brittany Ferries was going to start carrying livestock trucks on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route. We got wind that this may be on the cards back in 2023 and had already been in touch with the CEO and informed him of all the issues and controversy around the export of unweaned calves but they decided to go ahead anyway.
We immediately joined forces with a number of NGOs and wrote an open letter to Brittany Ferries asking them to reconsider this shameful decision, with over 120 signatures from various NGOs, MEPs, experts and other individuals including Dame Joanna Lumley, Chis Packham, Pauline McLynn, Neil Hannon, Cathy Davey and Pete Wedderburn. No response was received so a follow up letter was sent in July and Brittany Ferries agreed to meet with representatives from CIWF France, Welfarm and L214.
On 6th April we held our first BF protest at Rosslare port. It was a joint action with CIWF France, Welfarm, Four Paws and L214 who held a protest at Cherbourg port the following day to greet the ferry, the Cotentin. It got a lot of media attention and was even on French mainstream news on TV.
Other joint actions were held in June and September. This time we held our protest at Ringaskiddy port in Cork. BF does not carry livestock trucks on that route but the ferry that goes from there is huge carrying 2,400 passengers and we wanted to get their attention.
We have also been running social media campaigns through the year.
A second letter was sent to Brittany Ferries in July. This time they agreed to meet with representatives from Welfare, CIWF France and L214.
We will resume campaigning this year including more protests in Rosslare and Cork. So get your placards dusted off, you’ll be needing them soon!
Eurogroup for Animals joint campaigns
EFI is a member of Eurogroup for Animals and myself and Jane are part of the animal law group that is focusing on pig welfare and calf export. We are trying to push the Commissioner into taking steps to enforce the EC Pig Directive and tackle the non compliance with tail docking and provision of enrichment that is across the board and had many meetings throughout the year. On 17th February we sent a joint letter to Commissioner Varhelyi on the lack of enforcement of the EC Pig Directive, signed by 34 NGOs. Unfortunately no response has been received. We are also pushing the Commissioner to take action against the Irish authorities in relation to calf export. The audit that confirmed the journeys breach legislation was conducted in 2022 yet nothing has been done about it. There is no point in having laws if there is no enforcement. A joint letter was sent to Varhelyi on 24th February with a follow up going out on 8th September. This time the Commissioner agreed to meet. We only had two days notice, but I went to Brussels on 24th September for the meeting, with Vinciane from Compassion in World Farming . It was a very short but positive meeting during which the Commissioner agreed with us that the Irish authorities have had enough time to act on the audit and that the law must be adhered to. What that means in reality I’m not sure, we will have to wait and see… 
Pig campaign
We continued highlighting the plight of pigs in Ireland and ran another billboard campaign in March, with eight posters going up around the country. We also ran social media campaigns through the year. The aim is to raise awareness to encourage people not to consume pork produce, or at least source a free range pig farm.
In April I had a meeting with Keelin O’Driscoll from the pig research unit at Teagasc. We had a good discussion on tail biting and various research going on in to the issue. It was good to get a dialogue open and I will follow up this year.
French TV exposes calf export
Early in the year I was contact by a French TV company that were doing a programme on the Irish dairy industry and issues around calf export. It was slightly bizarre – I was interviewed outside Durty Nellies in Bunratty. But good to get the chance to embarrass the Irish authorities… You can view a clip of it here: Packed together, starved, sometimes beaten… The scandal of the transport conditions of Irish calves across Europe
Live export: sea journeys outside the EU video
I had a film made on sea journeys outside the EU using footage that we have obtained of the sea journey and slaughter practices in destinations countries. It was supposed to be used for a YouTube ad but it got rejected for being too graphic, which is very disappointing. However, I was able to promote it on X and it got a whopping one million views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_8pgizrhyE
Livestock vessel licence revoked!
Livestock vessel Finola M has made many trips to Ireland. It was first authorised by the Irish authorities in 2021 and we sent an objection at the time because of numerous deficiencies and detentions it had been subjected to, as well as dodgy ownership. Of course we were ignored. Last December the vessel made three attempts to come to Greenore Port, presumably for a shipment of cattle to North Africa. However, Jane discovered that the vessel did not have a valid hazards material certificate so we notified the relevant authorities. The Finola M eventually left Irish seas for Portugal and docked at Sines port for several weeks. It has not returned to Ireland since. In February this year Jane noticed that it’s operating company had been moved down in the ranking by the European Maritime Safety Authority from high performing to low. This meant it no longer met the requirements set out in Irish legislation so we wrote to the Minister to inform him of this. No response was received, but seven months later we finally got an email stating that the licence has been revoked. Success!
Shipments to Algeria
Sadly we saw more shipments of pregnant dairy heifers to Algeria in 2025 – one in January and one in November. In November we manged to get some good footage of the heifers loading (with great difficulty I might add!) Some of the heifers appeared lame and some looked heavily pregnant. Heifers can be exported up to 8 months pregnant which is shocking. During the shipment in January two heifers died and two aborted their calves. One calf was aborted during the shipment in November. The exporter, David Clarke of cows.ie, travelled with the November shipment and made a bunch of PR videos that he posted online. He filmed the heifers being transported from the port in Algeria in completely unsuitable vehicles so we have submitted a second joint complaint on this. No response has been received as yet. You can read more about it here.
There was also a shipment of young bulls to Israel in February and Morocco in March. It is appalling that shipments to Israel continued all throughout the conflict, even when missiles were landing at the port. A joint letter was sent to Commissioner Varhelyi calling for a suspension of all shipments but of course nothing happened, live export stops for nothing!
Calf export billboard campaign
In November we ran another billboard campaign, on calf export this time. We aimed it at the ferry companies and managed to get key locations in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. We use the billboards to run social media campaigns, tagging the ferry companies and relevant authorities. We know that Brittany Ferries really doesn’t like the bad publicity so we have to keep the pressure on. I don’t know about Irish Ferries, they don’t seem to care.
Fish campaign
Clare, who oversees the fish campaign, attended numerous meetings throughout the year with the Global Salmon Farming Resistance of which EFI is a member, and submitted six objections to applications for the renewal of salmon farm licences, also working with Salmon Watch Ireland and Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages. Salmon farms are an area of contention, not just because of the welfare and health issues for the fish, but also the damage to the environment and wild salmon populations. This is ongoing.
Public consultations
We ended the year by making substantive submissions to the EU publication consultation on animal welfare policy modernisation, the DAFM consultation on the animal welfare strategy and the public consultation on the Development of the Priorities and Policy Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union which will take place in June 2026.
Priorities for 2026
Live export: we will be focusing on live export as usual, following up on complaints on the sea journeys, monitoring shipments, exposing on social media etc. The calf export case might even get to court this year …. There is still a lot going on with the EU live transport proposal which will keep us busy.
Brittany Ferries: we are planning a number of protests this year in Rosslare and Cork to keep the pressure on, as well as social media and email campaigns. We will be in touch shortly on this. If we can get them to at least commit to stop carrying unweaned calves we will then shift the foucs to Irish Ferries.
Egg laying hens: we are going to try some retailer engagement this year with Irish supermarkets to encourage higher welfare procurement standards, with particular attention to eggs from caged hens. Some supermarkets have already made commitments and we will work on those that haven’t, to phase out not just the sale of whole eggs from caged hens but also using them in ingredients in their baked goods. We will also lobby govt for a ban on caged hens.
Slaughter campaign: this is something we have been avoiding but there are numerous welfare concerns around slaughter practices in Ireland and we have already started gathering information. It’s not just non-stun slaughter, there are welfare issues across the board that we will be addressing. We have been working on a page for the webiste for some time and this will be ready to publish soon.
Pig farming: we will continue working with Eurogroup on tail docking and also continue with our own awareness campaign.
Thank you!
I would like to thank all of you for your continued support and contributions, whether it’s giving donations, attending protests or sending emails.
Jane’s input has been invaluable, as always, with research, letter writing, submission writing and attending meetings I don’t always have time for. I couldn’t do this without her.
I’d also like to thank Lorraine for all her help with website maintenance, Natalie for her creative artwork for the billboard posters and social media posts, Lisa for managing the LinkedIn page, and Clare for managing all fish matters.
I know it might feel like we aren’t getting anywhere but we are making a difference. For example getting the approval revoked for the Finola M means there is just one livestock vessel authorised for use in Ireland, making it very restricted and expensive for the exporters. Sending in complaints about cattle having ringworm and horns when exported caused DAFM to issue a Trader Notice to exporters so they’ve had to improve standards. We have gained the support of many NGOs for our calf export campaigning – there is strength in numbers and we were a contributing factor to Stena’s decison to pull out of the Rosslare to Cherbourg route. We have put the whole industry under the spotlight!
We have thousands of followers on social media: 5K on Facebook, 3.6K on X, 1.7K on Instagram and hundreds on TikTok and LinkedIn. These are people who would not know about live export and all the suffering and cruelty involved. They would not know what hell pigs in Ireland have to endure. They would not know about the cruelty in the dairy industry, and all the other issues in animal agriculture.
So don’t give up hope. It will get better! I know I say this every year but let’s hope 2026 is a good year for farm animals!
Wishing you all the best!
Caroline Rowley
Executive Director
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