Madam, – Good news for farmers usually means bad news for farm animals. So it is with the report that live cattle exports in 2009 were up 94 per cent on the previous year (Home News, March 16th).
This is a vile trade. Whatever about the horrors of the slaughterhouse, it is beyond question that killing the animal “down the road” is preferable for the animal than a lengthy journey by truck and by boat across half a continent in crowded and cramped conditions.
Of the 286,000 cattle exported in 2009, tens of thousands were young calves, separated from their mothers and transported to the Netherlands and Belgium, where they became part of the veal trade, an abhorrence if ever there was one.The transport of live farm animals across countries and oceans is the antithesis of sound animal welfare. Modern methods of farm animal production could be similarly described.
The Green Party, which has argued successfully for animal welfare reform to be part of the Programme for Government, and is to be congratulated for doing so, must face up to the fact that the live export trade is incompatible with sound animal welfare practice. No amount of tinkering with truck size, or meaningless restrictions on journey time by an hour or two, can disguise the stark truth: transporting animals over enormous distances in trucks and on ships is a monumental abuse of their rights. – Yours, etc,