Animal welfare

In your article, “EU planning no new animal transport rules” (8 May), Alyn Smith MEP is quoted as saying that there is “simply no time, appetite or objective need for new rules when the problem was the poor enforcement by some member states”.

While, of course, better enforcement is on everyone’s priority list, this statement blatantly disregards the 1,099,444 European citizens who have signed the 8 Hours campaign petition calling for a review of the current transport Regulation (EC) No 1/2005.

It also ignores the 395 MEPs who signed Written Declaration 49/2011, which calls on the commission and the council to establish a maximum eight-hour limit for the journeys of animals transported for slaughter and was adopted by the European Parliament on 15 March, 2012.

The current regulation starts from the principle that journeys should not exceed eight hours, but many pages of derogations ensure that long- distance commercial transports of live animals, including animals going to slaughter, continue over immense distances across Europe and beyond.

Effectively, depending on age and species, animals can be transported for periods ranging from nine to 24 hours, rested for a period and then transported again, in cycles that can be repeated indefinitely.

I suggest that Mr Smith and others who doubt the urgent need for change should watch the latest footage of horrific animal suffering in transport, shown on the 8 Hours campaign website.

Yes, enforcement must improve, but better enforcement has been lacking for the last 20 years and millions of animals have been failed.

DAVID MARTIN MEP

Midlothian Innovation Centre

Pentlandfield

Midlothian