Byrne adopts tough line on animal transport rules

By Eric Donald

The European parliament have voted through an opinion on the Commission's proposal on the welfare of animals in transport.

This clears the way for a decision to be taken at the second Agricultural Council in April.

Addressing the parliament, Commissioner David Byrne took a harder line than usual. He said that he could not adopt measures which would effectively ban a trade. He went on to say that he could not accept amendments to the proposal which have as their practical effect a ban on the transport of live animals, whether for slaughter, further rearing or breeding. David Byrne said he believed that such a move would be illegal and would be liable to be struck down by the court.

He urged the MEPs to grasp the "greatest opportunity in a decade and for a decade to improve welfare arrangements''.

He said that any amendment which either seeks to liberalise transport conditions or unduly restrict them is doomed to failure. The opinion from the MEPs is a reasonable one, but its not binding.

Some observers had feared that a more extreme position could have been adopted by the parliament given that in the past up to 400 members had signed a petition calling for no journey time to exceed eight hours.

The Commission proposes to replace the current rules with a simple scheme for all species involving nine-hour travelling time to be followed by a minimum of 12 hours rest if the journey is to be continued. Importantly from an Irish perspective the journey time starts after the boat trip, once the animals arrive on the continent.

David Byrne reassured the parliament that the Commission proposal includes a requirement to check the vehicles tachograph as a new enforcement tool.

He said that one of the major objectives is to focus checks on long journeys as these are the most critical for the welfare of the animals.