Britain becomes Europe's first nation to ban live animal exports
After the UK leaves the EU in January, England and Wales will ban the practice of exporting live animals for slaughter.
A pen of lambs. Photo by Steve Byrns, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications, AgriLife Today, “Sheep,” CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Environment Secretary George Eustice announced on December 3 plans to ban the practice of live animal exports in England and Wales by the end of 2021.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) stressed that these new measures will be part of a wider push by the government to strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in animal protection.
DEFRA released a statement that added: “This announcement marks the start of renewed efforts from government to raise standards on animal welfare even further now we are outside the EU, including taking steps to ban primates as pets and crack down on the illegal smuggling of dogs and puppies, with further proposals to improve standards and eradicate cruel practices expected to be set out in the coming months.”
Many activists, including Peter Stevenson, the policy adviser to the Compassion in World Farming, were “delighted” by Eustice’s statement.
“We have campaigned for over 50 years against this inhumane, archaic trade, so this unambiguous proposal is very welcome”, added Stevenson.
DEFRA has estimated that in 2018 alone almost 6,500 live animals were transported from Britain to the continent.
However, members of the National Farmers’ Union are far less receptive to the government’s move.
The union’s chairman, Richard Findlay, has instead called for the government to upgrade export rules and improve the conditions for the transported animals.
Findlay suggested that live exports remain an “important trade option for farmers” and added that changes to export rules and the improvement of conditions would “ensure all animals travel in the best possible conditions and that they arrive at the approved destination in the best possible health.”
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has long called for the end of live animal exports.
In 2018, Johnson said, “I cannot believe that this barbaric trade is still going on - but it is.”
Whilst a backbencher, shortly after resigning as Theresa May’s foreign secretary, Johnson wrote in the Sun that: “They travel for more than 100 hours in conditions of such extreme discomfort that campaigners have been protesting for decades.”
The government has also stressed that severing ties between London and Brussels was essential in introducing this ban.
In 2012, a council in Kent imposed a ban on animal live exports. This came after the Daily Mail’s investigation found that pen facilities in Ramsgate led to four sheep drowning and an additional 40 sheep were put down for becoming lame.
But two years later the high court ruled that the decision taken by Thanet District Council to prohibit the export of live animals was in violation of EU rules on free trade and was therefore overruled.
Eustice, a long-standing Eurosceptic who resigned from Theresa May’s government in March 2019, said that: “Now we have left the EU, we have the opportunity to end this unnecessary practice. We want to ensure that animals are spared stress prior to slaughter.”
However, the Northern Ireland protocol means that Ulster will continue to follow rules set by the EU’s single market and therefore will not be allowed to introduce a similar ban.
Animal welfare is a devolved matter and it will be up to Holyrood to decide if Scotland is to follow Whitehall in introducing a similar ban.
However, the eight-week consultation period is expected to prompt those in Edinburgh to align its position to that set out by DEFRA in London on Thursday.
This article is published as part of The Commons Man series, written by Pi Media columnist Jack Walters.