Calfgate has exposed the mistreatment of bull calves within the Irish dairy industry.
If viewers think that the abuse of calves was bad, what would the RTÉ camera uncover if pointed at live cattle exports from Ireland to non-EU countries?
Our farmers, live animal exporters and politicians are still dunking in the swill bucket of live animal exports to the Middle East and north Africa.
Calfgate
Government policy of supporting and developing a non-EU live animal export trade assists this slop guzzling as the Department of Agriculture [Food and the Marine] is prepared to throw Ireland’s gossamer thin animal welfare reputation under the farm tractor.
Adult Irish cattle on a one-way ticket set sail for countries like Algeria, Turkey, Libya, Israel, and Egypt.
Animals are stamped as cargo to be manhandled and hauled, from farm to livestock mart, to lorry to livestock ship to foreign abattoir, as chattels rather than sentient creatures.
The sea journeys involved are too long to guarantee a satisfactory level of animal welfare. Conditions for animals in destination countries are often far below the minimum legal standards required in Ireland.
The live farm animal export trade, in which profit is systematically being placed above animal welfare and respect for the law, should be consigned to trade history.
Live animal exports represent a historical attitude to animal welfare, and a refusal by the farming community to embrace modern thinking both in terms of animal welfare and economic reality.
Not that it would trouble the Irish farmer as he/she cashes the live exporters’ cheque while their cattle close their eyes on the grubby floor of a livestock ship or on a hook in a blood-soaked foreign abattoir.
From John Tierney, chairperson Waterford Animal Concern