Urgent call:
Suspend EU to Turkey live exports
Compassion in World Farming launched a new film today showing the horror of the live animal export trade from the EU to Turkey.
Compassion in World Farming are calling on the European Commission to suspend live animal exports to Turkey, after uncovering terrible conditions in their transport and slaughter.
Compassion, joined by Eyes on Animals and Animal Welfare Foundation, are making the urgent appeal as we release our “Without Care” video, which documents widespread abuse of EU regulations on transport and slaughter in contravention of international standards.
The footage from Turkish slaughterhouses was gathered by Animals Australia. It shows practices that contravene the international recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health on welfare at slaughter.
WARNING: Some viewers may find parts of this film disturbing.
What makes the plea to the Commission even more urgent is the sheer number of animals being transported into Turkey from the EU this year.
A worrying trend
- In the first six months of this year almost 600,000 sheep were transported to Turkey from the EU, more than twice as many as in the whole of 2010.
- More than 100,000 cattle were exported from the EU to Turkey in the first six months of 2011, which is nearly twice as many as in the whole of 2010.
- On current trends, we could see more than 1 million animals travel the route this year.
Clear breaches of EU Rules
Peter Stevenson, Chief Policy Advisor at Compassion in World Farming, says: “What we see in the Without Care video is systematic contravention of EU law on animal transport and flouting of international standards on slaughter to which Turkey is signed up.
“It is hard to watch but even harder to accept that no effective action is being taken to stop this, despite very clear evidence of several EU regulations being broken.
“The Commission cannot just turn a blind eye to this evidence, these animals are the responsibility of the EU, which has to ensure regulations are followed in order to reduce the suffering caused by these long journeys.”
While demanding the suspension of the trade, the organisations involved in the investigations that captured the disturbing footage also believe that this trade should be brought to an end on a permanent basis since the distances and climatic conditions are too extreme to guarantee even minimal animal welfare standards.
Take Action
Please write to Commissioner Dalli urging him to suspend the export of animals to Turkey as a matter of urgency in order to prevent further suffering by EU animals.
You can email him here: john.dalli@ec.europa.eu
Or write to:
European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy
European Commission
B - 1049 Brussels
Belgium