The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture on Thursday 24 January called for strong and harmonised application of the 2005 Directive on the protection of animals during transport and tougher penalties against offenders (see EUROPE 12152).
The non-legislative report by Jørn Dohrmann (ECR, Denmark) on the protection of animals during transport was adopted with 22 votes in favour, 12 against and 4 abstentions. It will be discussed and voted on by MEPs at the plenary session from 11 to 14 February in Strasbourg.
Member States should, according to MEPs, pursue violations of EU rules and apply effective, proportionate, dissuasive penalties, harmonised at European level. These sanctions should include, in particular, confiscation of vehicles.
MEPs call on the Commission to develop geolocation systems that would enable animals’ location and the duration of journeys in vehicles to be tracked.
To protect animals better, national authorities should, according to MEPs: - carry out more unannounced checks; - push transporters to develop systems to prevent breaches recurring; - suspend or withdraw transporter’s licence for repeat offenders; - ban non-compliant vehicles and vessels; - adapt ports to animal-welfare requirements and improve pre-loading checks.
MEPs also want a science-based update of EU rules on transport vehicles to ensure: - sufficient ventilation and temperature control; - appropriate drinking systems and liquid feed; - reduced stocking densities and specified sufficient minimum headroom; - vehicles adapted to the needs of each species.
Animal journey times should be as short as possible, say MEPs, who promote alternative strategies: - local or mobile slaughter, meat processing facilities near the place of rearing or on-farm slaughter; - short distribution circuits and direct sales. They ask the Commission to conduct research on appropriate journey times for each species and to develop a strategy to shift from live animal transport mainly to transport of meat-and-carcass and germinal products, when possible. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)