Eat Less and Better!
The first thing you can do to help farm animals is not support factory farms by buying the produce. Find out where your food comes from and how it was produced. We need better labelling to inform consumers what systems animals are raised in but as a general guide opt for organic where possible – welfare standards are stricter, flock and herd sizes are smaller, and slower growing breeds are used. Or look for free range. Pigs and poultry are the most intensively farmed animals in the world and any produce in supermarkets here is likely to be from a factory farm. If the label doesn’t say outdoor reared, free range or organic the animal will have been reared intensively. It’s very difficult to find high welfare pork products in supermarkets – try your local farmers market, independent butcher, or look online as some farms have a delivery service or there may be a free range farm local to you that sells directly from the farm. Avoid farmed fish altogether. Ask questions about dairy – are the male calves exported, do the cows spend most of the year outside or are they indoors? Some dairy farms keep the cows indooors all year round. It’s worth doing a bit of research to ensure you aren’t inadvertently supporting the live export industry.
The most important thing you can do, and the easiest thing, is to cut down on the consumption of meat, dairy and fish altogether. It is better for our health, for our environment and for the animals of course if we eat less animal produce. Have a few plant based days during the week, mix up dairy with non dairy alternatives. This website is great for easy to follow recipes https://theflexitarian.co.uk/2013/06/the-flexitarian-pantry/ Remember eat less and better!
Stena Line campaign
As many of you know we have been heavily campaigning against the export of unweaned calves for many years now, and have an ongoing court action against the State in regard to this. During the campaign we have targeted Stena Line, because they transport the bulk of the calves. They also do not carry livestock on any other route, only the Rosslare to Cherbourg one.
In 2019 I delivered a petition to Stena Line with over 90,000 signatures, and we met with them at the HQ in London along with Eyes on Animals. They were presented with another petition by the Swedish Association for the Protection of Animals in 2020 and another by the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance last September, when we met with them again at the HQ in London. Yet nothing has changed.
Every year when we have conducted an investigation into calf export with other NGOs we have sent the report to Stena Line providing evidence of the cruelty and suffering these calves endure. We have tagged them on social media, sent emails and letters, there have been actions when many of you have contacted Stena Line. Still they persist in allowing unweaned calves on their ferries.
When the EU Commission published it’s report following an audit of calf export from Ireland, confirming the journeys are in breach of legislation, we sent the report to Stena Line. We have also informed them about the court case and it is quite bizarre that they continue to be complicit in a cruel trade that is being conducted illegally.
We sent an open letter in July 2024 to the CEO Niclas Martensson signed by mane NGOs. We didn’t get a response. So we sent another open letter on 12th February, this time with the backing of animal welfare groups in the Nordics, which is important because Stena Line is a Swedish company and we are hoping they won’t like being called out in their own territory.
Now this is where you step in. We need to bombard Stena Line with emails. They will cave eventually if we keep the pressure on. Please email them and tell them how disgusted you are that they are propping up a cruel industry, that to make matters worse is being conducted illegally, which they are well aware of. They advertise pet friendly cabins, whilst in the below decks thousands of calves are in overcrowded trucks being deprived of feed.
It is not OK to deprive any animal of feed for 30 hours let alone a two week old calf!
Tell them you will not be supporting their business and will tell friends and family what they are doing. They advertise themselves as ethical, moral and sustainable. There is nothing ethical about keeping two week old calves trapped in a crowded truck for 30 hours. There is nothing moral about starving an unweaned calf for 30 hours. The current dairy system that they are propping up by giving an outlet for farmers to offload their male calves is not sustainable.
Please send your email to these addresses:
niclas.martensson@stenaline.com CEO
annika.hult@stenaline.com Deputy CEO
ian.hampton@stenaline.com New Business & Governmetn Affairs
nicola.abernethy@stenaline.com PR & Communications Manager (Irish Sea & North Sea)
info@stena.com Head Office Sweden
You could send to them all in one email or copy and paste the text and send individually.
You can find more information here: NGOs urge Stena Line to stop transporting unweaned calves
Pig campaign
Please sign and share our petition calling on Minister Heydon to enforce EC Pig Directive 2008/120. Pigs are routinely subjected to mutilations at days old, they are not provided with adequate enrichment and many farms are overcrowded. As a first step we want the law to be enacted on, as a bare minimum.
https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/enforce-the-ec-pig-directive-2008-120-and-more
The best thing you can do for pigs is don’t eat the produce! But if you do eat pork please look for a free range farm. There is a list on the pig page on the website or do an internet search to find a farm or supplier near you. Many deliver. It’s very unlikely you will find free range produce in the supermarket.
Live Export – What can I do to help?
Write to your local TDs and MEPs
If you would like to take action against live export please contact your local TDs, Irish MEPs, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.
You can find your local TDs by visiting the Oireachtas website, and for an up-to-date list of MEPs visit the European Parliament website.
Here are some important points about transporting animals that you might want to include in your letter:
- Sea journeys have a detrimental impact on animal health and welfare, and it’s common for the animals to become sick, injured or die from respiratory illness or broken limbs. They can get sea sick in the same way we can.
- Countries outside the EU like Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Lebanon have little in the way of animal welfare legislation and are known to practice inhumane slaughter practices that cause immense suffering.
- Libya is in a state of increasing conflict with rumours of chemical weapons being used and the majority of missile activity is around the ports where the vessels dock. Irish citizens are strongly advised against going there as it is too dangerous.
- Unweaned calves do not have fully developed immune systems and they cannot regulate their body temperature making them prone to illnesses like pneumonia. Sending them on journeys where they have to go up to 30 hours with no feed is not only inhumane it is in breach of EU Regulation 1/2005. Furthermore, investigations by Eyes on Animals and L214 have uncovered violent and abusive behaviour toward the calves at both control posts in Cherbourg, where the calves are supposed to be fed and rested.
- Once animals leave Ireland the Department has no control over what happens to them. They may be vet checked and healthy when they leave but the Department does not monitor or report on illness, injury or mortality and has no idea what state the animals are in by the time they reach their destination. Animals exported outside the EU are no longer protected by any legislation.
- Live export does not stimulate price or competition – there is no correlation between live export volumes and beef prices. The value of live export is a fraction of the value of the whole agri-food export industry. The only people who benefit are the exporters and the handful of farmers who supply them.
