Animal welfare campaign group Ethical Farming Ireland is set to protest the live export of calves at Rosslare Europort in Co. Wexford this weekend.
The protest is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 30, beginning at 1:00p.m, according to the group’s Facebook page.
The group is taking issue with the length of time between feeding of calves during these journeys, claiming that: “[The calves] don’t all make it.”
Ethical Farming Ireland further claims that the journeys breach EU regulations.
The group also referred to the calves as “defenceless babies”.
In other live-export related news, a sailing from Rosslare to Cherbourg, France is understood to still be delayed.
Stena Line’s sailing from the Co. Wexford port to Cherbourg have been postponed a number of times.
The Stena Horizon vessel entered dry dock on Tuesday, March 29, and was originally expected to resume sailing on April 12. This was then delayed until Tuesday, April 19.
In a subsequent statement to Agriland, Stena Line said that the boat would resume sailing today (Tuesday, April 26). However, it is not clear at this time if it has departed from dry dock.
At this time of the year, the Stena Horizon brings trucks carrying Irish calves from Rosslare to a lairage in Cherbourg, France, where the calves are rested and fed before continuing their journey to countries in mainland Europe.
The dry-dock period is a routine annual check-up for the vessel. However, it usually takes place a few weeks later than this every year.
While some calves are still getting out to Europe, numbers are expected to be greatly reduced for the weeks that the Stena Horizon has been in dry dock.
The reduced capacity for calf sailings to mainland Europe has had a significant impact on the demand for export-type Friesian bull calves.