28 September 2012 - Malta
Valletta - 8hours conference

ANIMAL SUFFERING IN LONG-DISTANCE TRANSPORT: ASK JOHN DALLI

Malta, Mediterranean Conference Centre
Triq l-Isptar ,Valletta
in collaboration with Maltese organisations

Millions of animals are transported over long distances on European roads, sometimes for several days, only to be killed on arrival. This huge amount of suffering can easily be avoided by killing the animals in the nearest slaughterhouse to the farm and then transporting their meat and carcasses.

On 15 March, the European Parliament adopted Written Declaration 49/2011, which calls on the EU institutions to establish a maximum 8-hour limit on the journey of animals transported for the purpose of slaughter.

On 7 June, representatives of animal welfare NGOs from all over Europe and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) handed in 1,103,248 signatures to Commissioner for Health and Consumers, John Dalli, who is responsible for animal welfare in the European Union. In front of the cameras, Mr Dalli announced that “by 2014 the Commission will publish a legislative proposal”, which would include live transport and transport times. On the same occasion, the Commissioner admitted that “some species of animals require a much lower figure than 8 hours”.

A few days later, Mr Dalli denied that he ever promised a review of the rules on transport, and had his staff affirm that enforcement of the present rules was enough. Some of those rules have been in place for over 20 years and have never been enforced. Mr Dalli has provided no explanation as to why such rules would start to be enforced now...



Source: ANIMAL SUFFERING IN LONG-DISTANCE TRANSPORT: ASK JOHN DALLI<
Author: Press Release
Link: Programme

Date: 2012-09-28