Fine Gael MEP, Colm Markey, has urged his colleagues in the European Parliament to reject proposals to, effectively, ban the transport of calves, saying it will lead to serious animal-welfare issues on farms in Ireland and across the EU.
The measures will be voted on in the European Parliament tomorrow (Thursday, January 20).
The proposals include a complete ban on the transport of unweaned animals under 35 days; a maximum journey time of two hours for unweaned animals over 35 days; and a ban on the transport of pregnant animals in the last third of gestation.
“These measures were proposed by those who don’t understand farming, and are completely unworkable,” MEP Markey said.
“Keeping calves on farms for five weeks or moving them after two hours to holding centres would result in serious backlogs and the spread of disease.”
He said he fully supports a range of measures to get tough with laggards in other member states through stricter enforcement and better use of technology such as CCTV, GPS tracking, temperature monitoring, wearable technologies and data collection.
And he also supports the requirement to have vets on boats during sea journeys, as well as inspections of all consignments to non-EU countries.
But the proposals that will be voted on tomorrow are unworkable and unfair to farmers in Ireland, he said.
“Dairy farmers don’t have the infrastructure or capacity to manage any surplus and would be put under enormous pressure,” he said.
Despite the proposals being made in the interest of animal welfare, they are actually bad for animal welfare and must be rejected, he said, adding that he will be supporting amendments to the recommendations in plenary tomorrow.
“I will be voting in favour of the amendments put forward by the EPP Group, which reduces the age at which calves can’t be transported back to four weeks, except in the case of transport carried out by farmers for a distance of less than 50km.
“The second amendment sates that the transport of pregnant animals in the last third of gestation should be restricted to a maximum of four hours. These were the original compromises agreed at committee level before the alternatives were rushed through by the Greens by one vote.
“I addressed my colleagues in the EPP Group on this issue this week and urged them to support the amendments, which are sensible and practical.
“This forms part of a wider report following 18 months of work by the Animal Transport Committee, which was set up to investigate alleged breached of the rules.
He said Ireland’s track record on animal welfare during transport was widely praised during the committee hearings and Irish farmers shouldn’t have to suffer if others are flouting the law.