Olga Kikou, the organisation’s European affairs manager, is concerned that while the EU’s regulation EC 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport insists that livestock receive rest, feeding and watering, it does not cap total journey durations.
She said this was a particular problem when animals were driven outside the EU, to countries with even weaker protections and is especially concerned about trips to the Middle East, where journeys can last up to 14 days "in cramped conditions, in trucks or ships, without proper rest, feed or water". Even in Europe, "for some animals, they are 28 hours or more on the road. It’s way too long for any animal," she told GlobalMeatNews.
Indeed, she claimed there was evidence that the regulation was being breached within the EU. The law insists that livestock lorries carry data recorders to monitor the provision of adequate rest periods, but in some cases "this data is not recorded", she said, adding that time sheets were also sometimes inaccurately completed, so that lorries "can travel longer distances". The CIWF official claimed that inspections were inadequate to ensure compliance, as were audits of member state controls by the Food & Veterinary Office (FVO) of the European Union, which she argued had too few resources.
"We need to look at what happens on the ground – at whether the competent authorities are competent enough to carry out inspections," said Kikou. "There’s a big hole there."
She argued that a review of the legislation could help improve implementation, by tightening controls, especially by imposing a maximum overall journey time.
Replying, Aikaterini Apostola, health and food safety press officer for the European Commission, said: "The Commission takes the welfare of animals very seriously, including those that are exported outside the EU’s borders." She said that while the Commission was aware of the Compassion in World Farming campaign on live exports from the EU to the Middle East, Brussels’ writ does not run outside the EU: "It is necessary to clarify that the Commission has no competence to stop live exports to third countries."
She said the Commission had been involved in the ‘technical assistance and information exchange’ (TAIEX) workshop on slaughter-time welfare practices, held in March in Beirut, Lebanon, with the support of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). "This addressed the serious failures by slaughterhouses in meeting international OIE guidelines and standards on welfare at the time of slaughter," she said, noting veterinary officials and slaughterhouse regulators from Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Algeria were present.