Please take urgent action
We are in a crucial period where we have an opportunity to significantly improve the health and welfare of animals during long-distance transport. We need to look towards a transition to the export of meat and carcasses, rather than live animals, but that is a long way off. For now, we need to look at the biggest and most common welfare issues.
Long-distance transport causes immense suffering to animals, and typically suffering increases on reaching the destination country.
From Ireland, hundreds of thousands of unweaned calves are exported to cruel veal farms in the Netherlands, or to fattening farms in Spain or Eastern Europe where they are exported on to third countries after spending months in a feedlot – ‘A fate worse than veal’.
Thousands of weanlings and older cattle, including pregnant heifers, that are trucked and shipped directly to third countries with appalling animal welfare standards.
They are shipped directly from Ireland in huge, ancient livestock vessles, or they may travel the entire journey by road and ferry. Some travel by road and ferry to export ports in Spain or Croatia, and then get loaded onto dodgy livestock vessels that would not be approved in Ireland. The authorities have no idea if they even make it there alive.
We can use our voices to bring about change but nothing will happen if we remain silent!
Upcoming legislation vote – contact your MEPs
Soon MEPs will have the chance to vote on changes to legislation and we need to ensure that they know we want this to stop! Please email your MEPs, tell them your concerns, using information from this page – main issues are outlined below. Include a link to the YouTube video below and ask them to watch it.
You can find your MEPs and contact details here: The EU Information Hub Find Your MEPs.
- Barry Cowen – barry.cowen@europarl.europa.eu
- Ciaran Mullooly – ciaran.mullooly@europarl.europa.eu
- Maria Walsh – maria.walsh@europarl.europa.eu
- Luke Ming Flanagan – lukeming.flanagan@europarl.europa.eu
- Cynthia Ni Mhurchu – cynthia.nimhurchu@europarl.europa.eu
- Nina Carberry – nina.carberry@europarl.europa.eu
- Barry Andrews – barry.andrews@europarl.europa.eu
- Billy Kelleher – billy.kelleher@europarl.europa.eu
- Regina Doherty – regina.doherty@europarl.europa.eu
- Sean Kelly – sean.kelly@europarl.europa.eu
- Lynn Boylan – lynn.boylan@europarl.europa.eu
- Kathleen Funchion – kathleen.funchion@europarl.europa.eu
- Aodhan O’Riordain – aodhan.oriordain@europarl.europa.eu
- Michael McNamara – michael.mcnamara@europarl.europa.eu
Personalised emails have more impact but you can also use this link to email your MEPs. Eurogroup for Animals (of which EFI is a member) are running a mass-mailing campaign Send a message to MEPs: step up and protect animals during transport!
Contact your TDs
Please also email your local TDs or better still, go and talk to them about this in person. They will try to claim that the industry is highly regulated and we have the best standards in the world.
They will try to claim that the industry is necessary for rural Ireland, and that there would be a welfare crisis with dairy calves if we stopped exporting them. So it is important to point out why the industry is cruel and outdated, that live export is a welfare crisis, and that rural Ireland is not dependent on it.
If you get a face to face meeting show your TD the video below and ask them if they think that is humane! You will find your TDs and contact details here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/
The main issues outlined
Export outside the EU
Every year thousands of cattle are exported to countries like Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Israel. They have gone as far as Türkiye, Jordan and Egypt. The sea journeys take 5 – 16 days, depending on destination.
Cattle are land animals, they can get sea sick just like we can. We know from years of obtaining documents that temperature and humidity gets high during the journey, leading to respiratory illness which is common and the main cause of death during sea journeys.
High levels of ammonia can cause corneal ulcers, and we have seen evidence of Irish bulls that have gone blind in one eye after a long sea journey.
Leg injuries and stomach issues are also common, due to slipping in the soiled pens, and the sudden change to a grain heavy diet. We have seen bulls riddled with ringworm, we have seen bulls with broken horns.
The trucks used in the destination countries are not suitable for transporting cattle, they are industrial trucks with no water, no covering, or have wide bars that limbs get stuck through.
The destination countries have little or no animal welfare legislation in place and slaughter methods are brutal and would not be permitted in Ireland or Europe.
Barbarically slaughtered
It is well known that animal welfare standards in the destination countries are very poor and once the vessel docks at the destination port and the cattle are unloaded the paper trail stops. The authorities have no idea what happens to the animals after this point. It is perhaps less well known that these animals will be faced with a brutal slaughter. It’s not just a question of no stunning, we have non stun slaughter in Ireland. The way these animals are treated is more akin to torture. The most common practice is to shackle and hoist the animals, mostly bulls. They have a rope or chain put around a rear leg and they are hoisted off the ground. Whilst dangling there their throat will be slit, often multiple times, often in front of other animals.
It can take several minutes for the animal to lose consciousness, longer if the cut has not been done properly. It’s a blood bath. Sometimes you can see the workers are afraid of the bulls, they hit them over the head with poles, they slash their tendons, even stab them in the eye.
This isn’t make-believe, many NGOs go out to these places and get footage of European bulls being slaughtered. We have shown this footage to members of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe, and they were shocked and horrified by what they saw.
The issue is a combination of a lack of education and training, lack of proper facilities, lack of understanding around animal sentience and no legislation in place.
Please watch this very short film of footage from slaughterhouses in Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Türkiye. Evidence of Irish cattle was found at some of these places. It is difficult to watch but it is very important that everyone voting is fully informed of the issues.
Exporting pregnant animals
There have been two shipments of pregnant dairy heifers to Algeria from Ireland. It’s a 5 day sea journey, which is relatively short, but heifers can be exported up to 90% of pregnancy and during the last shipment two died during the journey and two gave birth on the last day.
When heavily pregnant cows die the calf can remain alive for some time before it suffocates, so what became of the calves? There was no vet on board, were they just left to die or were they dispatched? What became of the heifers that gave birth, and their calves? We have no idea, and neither do the authorities, we have asked.
Algeria is a drought ridden country with appalling animal welfare standards.
Pregnant Jersey cows were also flown to Dubai this year, and last year unweaned female dairy calves were flown to Libya. Both after a long road journey to Belgium. This is absurd.
If we cannot fully stop live export we must make significant changes to legislation and they must be enforced. Export to countries that do not have any animal welfare policies or standards to adhere to must be stopped, along with the export of vulnerable animals like unweaned calves and heavily pregnant animals.
Unweand calves
This year nearly 200,000 unweaned calves, as young as 15 days old, have been exported to Europe. The journeys involve an 18 hour ferry journey during which the calves cannot be fed because they need milk and you can’t feed 300 calves milk in a truck. When you factor in loading time, travel to the port, travel to the resting station in Cherbourg, unloading and waiting for a turn at a feeding station the calves are deprived of feed for around 30 hours. Not only is this inhumane it is in breach of EU legislaton that states calves must be fed after a maximum of 19 hours. In 2022 the European Commission conducted an audit and the subsequent report states clearly that these journeys are no in line with legislation.
Rather bizarrely the Irish authorities have interpreted the legislation to mean that there is no requirement to feed the calves at all, it is only needed if not doing so would cause undue harm and suffering. There have now been three studies commissioned by Teagasc that all conclude that prolonged deprivation of feed causes dehydration, muscle fatigue, low energy and hypoglycaemia. A study on calves exported to a veal farm in the Netherlands stated that all the calves required a serieis of antibiotics on arrival. It cannot be denied that these journeys are causing harm and suffering to hundreds of thousands of unweaned calves.
Calves do not have a fully functioning immune system until 8 weeks old, which is also the age their rumen is fully developed and they can get enough nutrition from solid feed rather then depending on milk. So would it not make sense to raise the age of export to eight weeks? You’d think so, but our government would rather waste money on trials into trucks with feeding systems. A trial was conducted in October 2023 that failed miserably. So now they are going to waste even more money on developing a truck with an automated feeding system. How are you going to feed 300 tiny calves in a truck, on three levels? It’s not going to work. It is not economically viable.
See links below for the studies and trials.
Join the campaign
Brittany Ferries started transporting livestock trucks this year, despite being fully informed of all the issues around feeding unweaned calves during transit. We are working with many NGOs in France and the UK to put pressure on them to revers their decision.
Irish Ferries also carries livestock trucks, including trucks full of unweaned calves, despite being fully aware of all the issues around feeding.
We have sent both companies reports from investigations, detailing how long these vulnerable animals go without feed, we have sent then the report from the audit by the EU Commission stating these journeys are not in line with legislation and we have sent them the studies that show how the health and welfare of the calves is negatively impacted during these long journeys. It is clear that animal welfare is not as important to them as profit.
Please visit the Take Action page to find out what you can do.
Financials – important points to note
Beef export is valued at just under €3 billion for 2024, and this figure has been rising year on year. Live cattle export is valued at €255 million, that is just 8% of the value of beef export. Plus 48% of the value of cattle export actually came from Northern Ireland and live cattle export there is currently running 35% ahead on last year. Journeys to Northern Ireland and the UK are short so there is no issue there.
These figures show that we could significantly reduce cattle export off the island of Ireland with little impact on the economy. If calf export were stopped or the age increased it would impact dairy farmers but the calves would have more value if sold at a greater age. Increased use of sexed semen could also improve the quality of bull calves produced.
The key point to remember is all animals deserve a life worth living, free from harm and suffering, where they can carry out their natural behaviours. They are denied these basic freedoms during the live export process. There are better ways of doing things!
