End cruel long-distance livestock journeys

End cruel long-distance #livestock journeys, say campaigners

Joanna Lumley joins fight to reduce time that #sheep and #calves spend in transit.

#Farmers must stop sending their #animals on "cruel and unnecessary" long-distance journeys across Europe, campaigners said today, as figures showed a big increase in the number of #sheep and #calves being exported alive during 2010.

Launching an advertising campaign against live animal exports for the welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming, the actor Joanna Lumley called for a maximum journey time of eight hours to be imposed and enforced across Europe. "We don't have to illustrate how simply ghastly this trade is," she said, sitting on board a Routemaster bus in Trafalgar Square. Last year's resurgence was a sign that "our eye has been taken off the ball", she said, but added: "This year, 2013, is the year of powerful change … we can do it. We can make it happen."

Although the live export trade has shrunk dramatically since the 1990s, last year saw "a significant increase", according to CIWF. It estimates that nearly 80,000 live sheep and calves were exported, compared with around 25,400 in 2010. Pigs and goats have also been loaded onto transporters, taking the overall total for last year to around 80,600.

While pushing for an end to the trade, #animal welfare groups such as CIWF regard a bid to impose an eight-hour maximum on all EU journeys as a good compromise. A petition launched by Dan Jørgensen, a Danish MEP, due to be closed today, has attracted more than a million signatures.