European Commission receives petition calling for end to long distance transport of animals

A coalition of animal welfare groups headed by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) handed over 150,000 signatures to the European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. Petition signatories are calling on the European Commission to end the unnecessary suffering of millions of animals being transported across long distances in Europe. (See footnote 1 for extracts from the Commissioner’s statement in response).

The petitions, collected through the Handle with Care campaign since its launch a year ago (Footnote 2), were handed over by Leah Garcés, WSPA’s Director of Programmes, on behalf of the coalition, along with representatives from Eurogroup for Animals and World Horse Welfare.

The Handle with Care coalition is proposing a revision of the current Regulation to introduce short finite journey limits. The campaign also urges the European Commission to take stronger action against those Member States that fail to enforce Regulation (EC) No 1/2005; this regulation introduced some much-needed welfare improvements, such as single partitions on the transport of horses and guidelines on stocking densities, however, finite journey times were not introduced, which is key to safeguarding welfare. Worse, as campaigners pointed out to the Health Commissioner, a lack of enforcement means that many EU Member States routinely flout the Regulation. (Footnote 3)

"The Handle with Care Coalition has discovered that horses are being forced to travel for up to 36 hours between Spain and Italy without stopping for water or rest. We saw many injuries, and most horses were suffering from dehydration and stress," said Leah Garcés, Director of Programmes for WSPA. "This cruelty could easily be avoided by humanely slaughtering the animals close to the point of origin, and shipping the meat products across to the point of sale."

A total of 152,557 people from 21 countries have signed the petition ’Stop Long Distance Transport of Animals for Slaughter’.