Protection of animals during transport within and outside the EU (debate)
Keith Taylor,rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Transport and Tourism. – Mr President, it’s no secret that animal welfare protection is practically non-existent in transport. Animals are crammed into old and broken trailers, squashed against the ceilings and piled on top of each other with no access to water. It’s a distressing sight but one that is all too commonplace. We find ourselves, a decade on from the regulation’s introduction, with the same breaches being reported time and time again. Nothing has changed.
Additionally, prolonged delays at third-country border controls can last for hours, or sometimes even days and in stifling heat, resulting in horrific suffering and fatalities among the animals – and this despite the judgment by the Court of Justice that transporters must observe the regulations even if their destination is beyond the EU borders.
I look forward to supporting Mr Dohrmann’s report and I would urge my colleagues to do so. The Member States have the authority to carry out the regulations and they must enforce them more strictly.