Co Donegal livestock haulier Andrew Lang has been left feeling angry after a UK television crew featured him in a documentary on live cattle exports.

In his opinion, the way that the programme was made presented as if on the trail of an international criminal engaged in hidden, cruel practices.

He was, at the time, making a routine delivery of elite Belgian Blue weanling bulls from Ireland to a regular customer in Italy.

He was chosen by the programme makers because he hauls livestock between Ireland, the UK and the continent, he believes.

For example, depending on the season, he would bring ewes from Northern Ireland to Longtown Mart in Scotland.

For a back-load, he could then bring Scottish calves back to Northern Ireland, down south and on to France.

All such journeys are made with approval of the relevant veterinary authorities and following EU animal welfare rules, he says.

That includes observing maximum journey times and giving stock their rest periods.

Far from being hidden, his journeys are fully monitored by veterinary authorities, he says.

“There’s a satnav tracker on every livestock truck.

"There’s a thermograph recording temperature in the trailer.

"A sensor on the back door records when the animals are loaded and unloaded.”

The television crew began following his truck after he arrived in France.

“I brought the weanlings into the approved lairage at Bourg en Bress.

"They had their 24-hour rest, were then checked by a French vet and approved to continue onwards,” he says.

The programme makers filmed him reloading the animals and, he says, the impression was given that he was hitting the cattle with his stick. “I was alone at 9pm in the evening loading 400kg bulls. I was using the stick in the normal way that any person from a farming background would understand, to herd on the cattle.”

Any suggestion that he would mistreat these cattle makes no sense, he said.

“They were the best of the best, handpicked from special sales.

"This customer is very, very fussy. He travels to Ireland and selects the ones he wants.

"It’s a given that these cattle are in top condition when arriving at his yard. It is unthinkable that you would mistreat these animals - in any way.”

Andrew knows that some people object to transport of livestock, believing it to be cruel. But he believes that there is scaremongering. “Objectors either don’t realise or more likely choose to ignore that the live cattle trade is regulated to a very high standard.

"Cattle are moved in specialist, approved livestock trucks, bedded on straw. The protesters who make and show videos never show the cattle resting in the lairage, chewing the cud.”

He is in the haulage business for over 20 years.

“My grandfather was a livestock exporter. It’s in the family. I’m doing a good job and I have pride in my work.”

He is concerned that protests against live exports, which he believes are unfounded, will result in more ferry routes being closed to livestock exports.

“Markets will be lost, farmers here will lose out and consumers in the export markets will be deprived of the food they want to eat.”