Brussels, 22/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament agriculture committee thinks that in order to limit the time of transporting animals, it is necessary to slaughter cattle in local slaughterhouses. The Jan Maat (EPP, Netherlands) report on improving conditions for transporting animals will be examined in plenary on 30 March Strasbourg.
The EP agriculture committee recommends "the development of local slaughterhouses", particularly in disadvantaged areas and thus significantly amends the initial proposal. MEPs consider that it would be impossible, as planned in the proposal, to impose stops every nine hours with a twelve hour rest for animals on journeys of more than 50 km. The report suggests limiting journey time to a maximum of 9 hours in total for animals to slaughter on journeys of more than 100 km. This rule will only apply when two abattoirs are not available within a 500 km radius from the place of departure.
The Parliamentary committee is seeking to strengthen the demands that apply to transport vehicles (limited number of animals per carriage, temperature, space per animal, ventilation system and availability of feed and fresh water). According to MEPs, these vehicles should have certificates granted by the national authorities testifying that they have met the necessary requirements. The report also stipulates that "the competent authority shall carry out at any stage appropriate checks on a random or targeted basis to verify that declared journey times are credible and that the journey complies with the regulation". MEPs think that at least 20% of journeys should be inspected, 10% of which should be in the form of on the spot checks on the road. They also call for the authorities to be allowed to refuse animals crossing borders in the case of irregularities.