Stop the live export of animals

Kate Humble with the sheep and lambs in the springtime TV show was a popular item with viewers, not surprisingly. The lambs ran around happily, feeding from their mothers, the sheep safely grazing and tending to them. But this was not quite the whole story. Along with the cows and the pigs, many thousands of sheep would be later transported in crowded trucks with no room to lie down or even turn around,shoved together for journeys thousands of miles long to be eaten as "fresh meat" in foreign countries. Except that many of them would lie dead and dying in the cattle trucks, having been left without food and water. You don't hear much about this. It would be bad for trade. Nor do the newspapers tell you about it. The demonstrators at the port of Ramsgate, on the south coast, raise their banners for "Stop Live Exports" as they have been doing ceaselessly since the ban on live exports was lifted in 2010. At least someone cares. The EU now recognises animals as "sentient beings" ranking with humans in their capacity for suffering. This being so, logically live exports should be forbidden because of their likeness to the crowded rail trucks running captives to the Nazi concentration camps. The charity organisation Compassion in World Farming have been backing the protesters. They have had observers with the cattle. Once they are landed outside the EU, conditions become far more brutal. In this country it has been shown that rough handling, beating, excessive use of electric prods and lack of food and water are common, with a failure by the authorities to inspect transport and prosecute offenders. Exhaustion, no proper ventilation, transport of animals unfit to travel and unsuitable vehicles can kill them en route and many journeys from the UK take several days or even weeks. So the question is why transport them live? If they must be killed, why not in local abbatoirs before being loaded on to the trains? Is it justified simply so they can be classified as "fresh meat"? Millions are making these journeys which can last for days or weeks, including the huge numbers from this country. So how can it be stopped? Appeals to farmers, appeals to transport companies involved in the exports (a few of which have already been successful) and to the BBC programme makers might make a difference - a little more, perhaps, than appeals to M.P.'s. Then people can happily eat their roast lamb, pork or beef dinner and even some veal from the calf torn away from its mother when it is born, so she can produce even more calves and milk. At least it wasn't exported. ends