DEADLOCK IN ANIMAL WELFARE TALKS

Originally from: mona parr
                        
DEFRA STATEMENT
The UK Government has expressed regret at the failure by EU Ministers to agree improvements to the welfare of farm animals in transit. The UK was one of a number of countries that felt the package of proposed measures did not go far enough.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2004/040427b.htm

Speaking in Luxembourg, the UK's Animal Welfare Minister Ben Bradshaw said:

"I am bitterly disappointed at the lost opportunity but the proposed changes would not have improved animal welfare significantly and in some areas would have made matters worse. That is why the UK should not support them.

"The UK was seeking shorter journey times, more space and better ventilation, but the gap between countries was too great," he added.

2 STORIES FROM WESTERN MORNING NEWS

DISMAY AS HORSE EXPORT DEBATE ENDS IN FAILURE

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141529&;
command=displayContent&sourceNode=141513&contentPK=9749200

Campaigners for a ban on the live export of horses, donkeys and ponies for slaughter reacted with dismay yesterday after crucial European talks on the issue collapsed without agreement.

European agriculture ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, abandoned talks on new animal transport rules in the small hours of the morning after it became clear that a consensus could not be reached. The collapse leaves a question mark over the legality of exporting horses from the UK for slaughter on the Continent. It means that hopes of improving conditions for horses and farm animals, transported thousands of miles across Europe, are further away than ever.

British ministers are under pressure to change domestic laws to ensure that Britain's 70-year-old ban on the live export of horses remains in place.

Jo White, campaigns manager at the International League for the Protection of Horses, said horse lovers would be "bitterly disappointed" by the failure of ministers to reach an agreement.

She added: "We have been actively campaigning for reforms to the current European directive, lobbying for the inclusion of limited journey times to be introduced and for an opt-out for the UK on the issue of live horse exports for slaughter. Until serious improvements, including restricted journey times and dramatically improved conditions are introduced, horses and donkeys transported to slaughter will continue to suffer."

The WMN campaign to block the resumption of live exports has attracted a huge public response and put British ministers under intense pressure to act.

As negotiations began in Luxembourg, the Animal Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw, appeared to be moving towards a position of supporting a British opt-out on horse exports. But the collapse of the talks, which followed disagreements between northern and southern European countries, leaves the issue up in the air.

The WMN's campaign has revealed that the existing "ban" on live exports is far from watertight.

South West MEP Neil Parish said the onus was on British ministers to find a way forward that would protect British horses and ponies. Mr Parish, the Conservative agriculture spokesman in the European Parliament, said the UK could take up the issue when it holds the presidency of the EU next year or seek to act domestically.

He added: "There is now nothing stopping the Government from going for a complete ban under the existing legislation. In theory they could be challenged by the European Commission, but in practice that seems very unlikely. We need ministers to have courage because the existing situation does not provide enough protection for our horses and ponies."

Mr Bradshaw also voiced his disappointment at the lost opportunity: "But the proposed changes would not have improved animal welfare significantly and in some areas would have made matters worse," he said.

A Defra spokesman acknowledged that there were concerns about whether the existing "ban" on live exports was legally watertight.

He said: "There is a view that we do need to continue to look at this situation. It is very complex legally and to some extent problematical, but there is a desire to work with stakeholders to see what we can come up with."

The expansion of the EU is expected to make it more difficult to reach consensus on animal transport rules.

Talks are unlikely to resume before next year

MINISTER VOWS TO GET RESULT ON HORSES

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141529&;
command=displayContent&sourceNode=141513&contentPK=9735621

The Government last night agreed to fight for a ban on the export of horses, ponies and donkeys from British as it prepared to enter intensive all night talks with other EU countries.

The dramatic eleventh-hour climbdown came last night as Minister Ben Bradshaw prepared to enter final negotiations at the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg over an EU Regulation aimed at improving the lot of animals transported live.

As equine welfare campaigners waited, a spokesman for Mr Bradshaw said that he would support a European Commission proposal, tabled after the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed an identically worded regulation proposed by Westcountry MEP Neil Parish last month.

The clause, which Commissioner for Animal Health discussed during a one-to-one meeting with the Commision prior to the talks left campaigners holding their breath in anticipation of Mr Bradshaw getting a deal, despite officials continuing to insist that a simple ban on the trade would be legally unenforceable.

However a spokesman for Mr Bradshaw insisted that he had taken on board the feelings of more than 65,000 people who had supported the WMN campaign for a ban, and would be putting forward restrictions based on animal welfare which would have the same effect.

The UK has been putting forward proposals which have been adopted in the run-up to the council and these include the requirement that all horses on a lorry be transported in single stalls, this is partly welfare and partly economics.

Mr Bradshaw will be proposing a clause restricting the transportation of unbroken ponies, horses and donkeys to short road journeys and groups of four – which he claims would prevent low value moorland ponies from being exported.

He is also calling for a ban on the export of all horses, ponies and donkeys aged less than four months, and claims a stipulation already within the draft Regulation that all equines should be transported in individual stalls will have the effect of making it uneconomical for dealers to export.

"The requirements will effectively prevent the export of UK equines to the EU," said the spokesman.

But Shadow Countryside Minister James Gray warned that the Government would not be forgiven if it failed to take up the opt-out clause being offered by Europe.

Mr Gray, who praised the WMN's campaign on the issue, said: "The public in regions like the Westcountry will go ballistic if ministers allow this horrific trade to resume. People will not understand how it can be that the Government is offered a way out of this but refuses to take it."

The former Government chief vet Keith Meldrum, who now advises the International League for the Protection of Horses, said that strict welfare rules could make it "virtually impossible" to export horses for slaughter from the UK if minister failed to back a full ban.

But he said more work was still needed on the details to ensure that any welfare-based scheme was watertight.

And Jo White, campaigns director at the ILPH, questioned the Government's insistence that a total ban would be impossible to enforce. Ms White said that any system that would prevent a resumption of the live trade would be welcomed, but she said a total ban was still the preferred solution. She added: "Enforcement is an issue in any system, but we don't think it's an excuse. The Government must understand that they have to act on this issue."

There is an urgency to push through the legislation before the Eastern European countries – the major exporters of live equines to Italy for the salami market – join the EU on May 1.

"If there are no improvements in the animal welfare package Ben Bradshaw won't sign up to it," said DEFRA.