Demands for end to live animal exports from Britain
The Times
10 September 1990
Michael Hornsby
Attacks by French farmers on cargoes of meat and livestock imported from Britain and other countries are fuelling demands for a ban on the export of all live animals on welfare grounds.
A switch to an all-carcass trade would severely stretch Britain's slaughterhouse facilities. Only 10 per cent of abattoirs are licensed to export to the rest of the European Community.
Sir Richard Body, Conservative MP for Holland with Boston and former chairman of the Commons agriculture select committee, has joined those calling for abolition of the live trade. The MP, who is a sheep farmer, has asked for a meeting with John Gummer, the agriculture minister.
"There is no doubt that the animals suffer a great deal. They can go on a very long journey, for very many hours, without food or water, and a great many of them die on the way. We ought to be slaughtering them in this country and sending them to the retail outlets. In this way we could bypass these [French] farmers."
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Compassion in World Farming, an animal rights pressure group, have led the campaign for a ban on live exports. The British Veterinary Association would also like to see the trade end.
The agriculture ministry said: "The issue of animal welfare is quite separate from the attacks by French farmers, which have been directed equally at livestock and carcass cargoes. The transport of live animals is subject to strict welfare regulations. A unilateral ban on the trade would be illegal under the EC treaty."
Last year, Britain exported 329,288 cattle, 589,531 sheep and 110,419 pigs, a trade worth ú98 million, of which more than half went to France, according to the Meat and Livestock Commission. Carcass meat exports earned ú560 million, France again taking about half the trade.
Geraint Davies, chairman of the Welsh branch of the National Farmers' Union, said: "We could not convert the live trade to a carcass trade overnight. Many of the sheep we export are not slaughtered immediately on arrival, but are kept by the French or Italian importers until they have reached the weight and condition they require."
In a report published today, the Labour party accuses the government of excessive secrecy about the conditions in British abattoirs and promises to identify those that fail to meet required standards if it wins the next general election. David Clark, the shadow agriculture minister, says that only 98 of the 940 abattoirs in Britain are licensed to export to the EC. The percentage of EC-qualified slaughter houses is lowest in Wales (5 per cent) and highest in Northern Ireland (74 per cent).
Dr Clark says that nine EC-approved slaughter houses - seven in England and Wales and two in Scotland - were temporarily suspended from operation after visits in July by EC inspectors. They said that there was inadequate waste water ducting; dirty cattle and sheep were entering slaughter houses; there was no automatic temperature registration in carcass chillers; and there were poor truck-washing facilities.
The MP estimated that the time spent on abattoir inspection by government veterinary surgeons has declined by 22 per cent over the past six years. The agriculture ministry said that inspectors' reports were confidential and many abattoirs do not apply for EC licences because they do not want to export. Their hygiene standards are not necessarily lower.
Roger Hughes, who runs a chain of Spar supermarkets in Welshpool and Newtown, mid Wales, yesterday organised a boycott of French goods by 70 fellow traders, with "100 per cent support" from customers.
