Today (3 August), in a major victory for animals, Brittany Ferries has confirmed it will end the transport of all live farmed animals, including unweaned calves, from Ireland to France on its ships from September 2026 at the latest.

international outcry

In a decision which provoked international outcry, Brittany Ferries restarted transporting live animals from Ireland in March 2025 after a 30-year pause.

While live exports were banned from Great Britain in 2024, animals continue to endure long and stressful journeys across Europe, including from the Republic of Ireland. By the time the ships reach France on these journeys, unweaned calves have gone for over 18 hours without food. This is in breach of EU animal welfare law.

A Sustained campaign

When Brittany Ferries started transporting live animals from Ireland, a sustained international campaign followed. This was led by several NGOs including Compassion in World Farming, Ethical Farming Ireland, WELFARM, FOUR PAWS, L214, Eyes on Animals, Eurogroup for Animals, Southampton Animal Action and Dorset Animal Action.

More than 100,000 emails were sent to Brittany Ferries, two petitions obtained over 100,000 signatures and regular demonstrations were held in Ireland, France and the UK over the past year. A joint social media storm also drew their customers’ attention to this cruel policy change and Brittany Ferries’ Trustpilot page was temporarily taken down as a direct result of the action.

This resulted in four meetings with the company and NGOs – in which advocates called for an immediate end to the practice of transporting unweaned calves and all other animals.

A landmark victory

Charlotte Reid, our Deputy Director of Global Campaigns, said:

This is a landmark victory for animals. After months of campaigning by NGOs, with the support of hundreds of thousands of supporters across Europe, Brittany Ferries has finally listened.

Animals are not cargo and they should not be forced to suffer on these gruelling, stressful journeys.

We won't stop campaigning until this cruel, unnecessary practice has been completely consigned to the history books. Irish Ferries is now the only operator continuing the trade from Ireland to France, and we're calling on them to urgently follow suit and end the live transport of animals.

All eyes on Irish Ferries

Brittany Ferries’ withdrawal from this trade makes Irish Ferries an outlier, as the only carrier to continue the cruel practice of transporting unweaned calves from Ireland to France. Pressure is now mounting on Irish Ferries to follow suit.

Victory: Brittany Ferries to stop live animal transport