Day: January 11, 2022

Live Transport

“Time to act” for EU Parliament!

by Animals ’Angels e.V.

Your voice for the animals: Calls on the members of the EU Parliament to limit animal transports to 8 hours!

An important vote will take place in January – every vote counts! The Greens / EFA have set up a website with a sample letter for this purpose: https://act.greens-efa.eu/de/tiertransporte. Animals ‘Angels also put strong pressure on the MPs before the vote.

To the background:
The EU laws on the protection of animals are finally being revised.
The “Animal Transport” investigative committee of the EU (ANIT) has already made recommendations on this and, among other things, has spoken out in favor of limiting “slaughter” animal transports to 8 hours.
That’s good, but not good enough.

Because long animal transports are torture for all animals, not just for animals for slaughter. ‘Fattening’ and ‘breeding’ animals should – if at all – only be allowed to be transported for a limited time.

Soon, in January members of the European Parliament will vote on the recommendations of the special inquiry committee for Animal Transport (ANIT).
This is our chance to limit animal transport.
We want to include an absolute maximum time limit of eight hours for the transport of live animals – and an even shorter time limit for young animals.

This is our chance to put an end to this cruel system of dragging animals all over Europe in horrible conditions.

We’re asking for:
-A complete ban on transporting unweaned animals younger than 5 weeks
-2 hours of maximum transport time for unweaned animals older than 5 weeks
-8 hours of maximum transport time by air and road
-24 hours of maximum transport time by sea
-A ban on exporting animals to countries outside the EU which don’t respect EU animal welfare standards.

But we need to do this together.
We need you to ask MEPs from other political groups to support our demands.

Send your MEPs an email and ask them to support the maximum of 8 hours for animal transport. Use our tool to select the MEPs from your country that have not yet decided which way they will vote.
If you’re in a rush, we’ve even prepared an email for you.

More about our “Time to Act” project, with which we are campaigning in the EU for a better law to protect animals during transport, at: https://act.greens-efa.eu/animal-transport
Please sign!

The more people express their support, the louder our demands will be heard!
That is why it is important to ask your friends to sign as well.

Petition: https://act.greens-efa.eu/animal-transport

And I mean…In January 2022, the European Parliament will vote in plenary on the report and the recommendations of the ANIT committee.
We have often reported on the betrayal of the investigative committee (ANIT) to the animals (https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2021/12/04/anit-committee-vote-an-anti-animal-welfare-work/)
The task now is to correct the bad work done by these well-paid EU officials.

The ship transports with animals, for example: they can take days or even months, and thus they do not violate EU regulations.
This was the case several times in 2021 alone, for example with the ships Karim Allah and Elbeik or with the blockade of the Suez Canal.
And yet those “responsible” for ANIT see no need in their report to limit or even stop these grueling journeys.

Road transport must generally be limited to a maximum of eight hours.
ANIT also failed there.

Through our mobilization and actions there remains one last hope, albeit a rather weak one, to convince the MEPs in the European Parliament not to turn a blind eye to the horror and cruelty to animals on the European roads any longer.

“Time to act” for EU Parliament!
The current EU regulation is out of date and inadequate in all areas: implementation, controls and consequences in the event of violations of EU regulations.

It would be a shame, after all the tragedies at sea and on the roads that have become known, to tolerate the irresponsible policy of the EU Commission in relation to animal transports.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Belgium: Record Number of MEPs Demand An EU Commissioner For Animal Welfare.

10 January 2022

GAIA

Press Release

This is the most-signed thematic oral question tabled by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in this term and beyond. The Conference of Presidents is now called to decide on its scheduling in a plenary meeting for the Commission to answer within the next three months, and on its transformation into a resolution.

Over 150 MEPs and more than 140,000 citizens recently expressed their support to the #EUforAnimals campaign, promoted by over forty animal protection organisations across the EU, which demands that more relevance is given to animal welfare by making this responsibility explicit in the name of the relevant Directorate-General and the job title of the competent EU Commissioner. In the present context, the Commissioner’s responsibility would become for “Health, Food Safety and Animal Welfare”.

Today MEPs have made history again by putting together – in impressive numbers – the foundations for a European Union that cares more consistently and constantly for animal welfare, as its citizens are demanding, by establishing an EU Commissioner explicitly in charge of Animal Welfare. The EU institutions should not miss this opportunity to ensure that their efforts will not be thwarted by a different attitude in future EU Commissions.

Michel Vandenbosch, President, GAIA

We thank enormously Mr Fuglsang and the other MEPs who tabled the oral question, which represents a milestone in the work for animal welfare in the EU. The acceptance of this proposal by the European Commission would be a natural complement to its present efforts, and we would be delighted to see Ms Kyriakides become the first EU Commissioner for Animal Welfare.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

A survey conducted in June by Ipsos shows that 70% of Europeans think there should be an EU Commissioner for Animal Welfare. While animal welfare is very close to the heart of European citizens, who constantly support initiatives aimed to improve the way animals are treated, the attention it has received within Brussels has fluctuated depending on the priorities of the Commission in office at the time.

We are fortunate to have a committed Commission at present, which has initiated a review of the existing legislation relating to animal welfare and has repeatedly announced its intention to prepare ambitious improvements for the years to come. However, previous Commissions’ actions on this front had been nearly absent, and this could be again the case when the next Commission starts operating in late 2024.

A new period of inaction on animal welfare should and can be prevented, and the way forward is clear: an EU Commissioner explicitly in charge of it.

ENDS

Notes

Text of the oral question:

Art 13 TFEU recognises animals as sentient beings. European citizens care about animals as testified by the Eurobarometer responses and would like to see their welfare improved through clear legislation, effective policies and the commitment of adequate resources. 

EU legislation on animal welfare has been elaborated since 1974, but the approach of the EU institutions has been inconsistent, contributing to the problem of poor enforcement on various fronts. 

The Commissioner responsible for animal welfare should receive more influence and powers in the EU institutions on this topic whose importance has been clearly acknowledged by this Commission. 

Over 125,000 EU citizens and over 120 MEPs from all political groups have already joined the #EUforAnimals campaign to demand that more relevance is given to animal welfare by making this responsibility explicit in the name of the relevant Directorate-General and the job title of the competent EU Commissioner. 

Presently, the Commissioner’s responsibility would become for “Health, Food Safety and Animal Welfare”, thus greatly supporting both legislative progress and proper enforcement. 

This would be a significant political decision leading to more accountability of the EU institutions for animal welfare and would therefore increase the consistency, effectiveness and impact of policy making in this field. 

One of the immediate effects of this proposal would be to establish a specific Directorate on animal welfare within DG SANTE, thus adequately recognising its specific relevance. 

  • Is the Commission planning to respond positively to this proposal? 
  • If so, what procedures aimed to implement it have been activated?

The oral question was promoted by Niels Fuglsang MEP (S&D, DK), with the co-promotion of MEPs Sylwia Spurek (Greens/EFA, PL), Petras Auštrevičius (Renew, LT), Manuel Bompard (GUE/NGL, FR), Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP, FI), Michal Wiezik (Renew, SK), Emmanouíl Fragkos (ECR, GR), Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, NL), Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, BE), Emma Wiesner (Renew, SE), Maria Noichl (S&D, DE) and Francisco Guerreiro (Greens/EFA, PT).

Citizens who want to support this campaign can sign the online petition.

The full survey results can be found here. 

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News

EU: Avian Influenza Emergency – Are We Headed Towards the Next Pandemic ?

11 January 2022

News

As Europe struggles with its largest avian influenza outbreak to date, the need to introduce a vaccination strategy is more prominent than ever.

Highly contagious and prone to mutations, the avian influenza virus is wreaking havoc in the European poultry sector. Both animal advocates and the poultry industry agree that a vaccination strategy is by now  indispensable to limit the spread of this deadly disease.

In their report published on 23 December 2021, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stressed that current biosecurity measures appear insufficient in stopping the spread of the disease and stated that, aside from reinforcing biosecurity, the “reduction of the density of commercial poultry farms and possible appropriate vaccination strategies, should be implemented.” Indeed, in the absence of a vaccine, housing orders and the culling of millions of birds every year remain the only solutions available to Member States to try and curb this disease. 

It is by now recognised that the extreme industrialisation of poultry farming in the EU amplifies and is co-responsible for the devastating effects of outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). 

The geographical concentration of millions of domestic poultry kept in intensive systems is the main culprit for the outbreaks we are witnessing every year, with devastating consequences not only for kept poultry but also for wild birds (who are now also dying in large numbers). 

Prof. Thijs Kuiken, professor of comparative pathology at the Erasmus MC hospital in the Netherlands, recently stressed that the current strain of HPAI originated in 1996 among domestic geese in China, from where it further spread to domestic poultry in Asia. That outbreak could not be kept under control and in 2005 the virus infected wild birds in the region of Qinghai Meer in China. Since then, wild birds have become vectors of the disease during their seasonal migrations. 

Millions of animals are currently suffering from the effects of illness and mass killing for disease control, and considering that vaccinations are highly likely to curb the spread of the virus, idleness in implementing a comprehensive vaccination strategy aggravates the situation.

Developing a vaccine becomes even more urgent if we consider that, between 1997, when the first human case was identified, and 2015, 907 people were infected with HPAI H5N1 globally. The most recent human case occurred in the UK only a week ago. So far there is no proof of human-to-human transmission and the risk of infection for the general population remains low. However, due to its specificities, this virus is considered a public health threat and its genetic changes are monitored accordingly.

The current situation proves yet again that for reasons of disease control, sustainability and animal welfare, the EU must set a course away from intensive farming. 

The reduction of numbers of reared animals is imperative to achieve these goals and the time to act is long overdue: two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, one does not have to look far to see the effects of human negligence concerning zoonotic diseases.

Regards Mark