WHAT'S NEXT

Help to Stop the Long-Distance Live Animal Transport in the European Union
  1. Signatures
    17,916 out of 30,000
    Petitioning
    1. European Commission
  2. Created By
    Animals' Angels
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

Mar 19, 2012

During last week's plenary session, the European Parliament adopted Written Declaration 49/2011 to establish a maximum 8-hour journey limit for animals transported for slaughter in the European Union. The declaration calls on the European Commission and Council to review current live animal transport legislation and reduce the maximum time allowed for transport to ensure that animals don't suffer from thirst, stress, injury or death during transport.

Nearly 18,000 people signed the Change.org petition started by Animals' Angels, one of the key groups behind the 8 Hours campaign. The campaign received the support of 395 MEPs and more than a million people worldwide, including Dr. Jane Goodall.

“This is an historic moment for all those who care about animals. The call of the European Parliament follows the appeal of one million citizens: they cannot be easily ignored by the EU institutions,” said Christa Blanke, Founder of Animals' Angels. “But these are just two fundamental milestones in a campaign that will end only when long-distance journeys of animals sent for slaughter are banned in the EU. We have been documenting the suffering caused by animal transports around Europe over many years, and we have seen that all improvements of transport rules are insufficient if long-distance journeys continue to be allowed."

Today, huge numbers of farmed animals are transported under unacceptable conditions on European roads, only to be slaughtered on arrival.

The long duration of such journeys often causes the animals intense and avoidable suffering, as has been consistently reported over the years by Animals’ Angels investigators. Current EU legislation makes it possible for animals to be transported for several days. This has to change. Live animals sent for slaughter should never be transported for more than eight hours in total.

In November 2011, the European Commission published its report on the impact of Regulation 1/2005 on live animal transport. This report did not contain legislative proposals, nor it proposed that long-distance live transport should end.

One million signatures will be a loud wake-up call to the European institutions, reminding them that citizens reject the additional suffering currently being inflicted on farmed animals. We already have over 960,000 signatures on the 8hours website, so we hope that change.org supporters can contribute at least 30,000 signatures.

If you want to sign the petition, you can either do so here (for everybody) or on the www.8hours.eu website (for Europeans only). Please note that duplicate signatures will be deleted.

You can find further information about this campaign on the www.8hours.eu website.

Thank you for your support.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

8hours campaign against the long-distance live animal transport in the European Union

Petition to the European Commission

Every year, millions of animals are transported thousands of miles on European roads under unacceptable conditions. Horses collapse in utter exhaustion, sheep die of thirst, pigs freeze to death or die of heat. The biggest problem is the length of the transports. The current legislation “Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 of 22 December 2004 on the Protection of Animals during Transport” permits transports over the course of several days and thousands of miles – and therefore, the suffering of animals on these transports continues.

The law enforcement agencies are well aware that long-distance transports mean agony for the animals. In 2002, the scientific committee “Animal Health and Species-Appropriate Husbandry” of the European Commission published a report on the protection of animals during transport. The bottom line: As a general rule, animal transports should be as short as possible. However, this recommendation was not taken into account in the current Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport.

The European Commission recently presented a report on the effects of the Regulation, but it didn't formulate any proposals to stop long-distance live transport. We need a lot of public and parliamentary pressure to make them change their mind.

Numerous reports of Animals’ Angels and other animal welfare organizations and their collected evidence have proven that the suffering of animals on long distance transport is inevitable!

Therefore, we ask the European Commission to support a maximum duration of 8 hours for animal transports in the member states of the European Union, to finally put an end to the additional suffering currently being inflicted on farmed animals.

Long-distance transports must stop!

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