Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-12-Speech-1-130"
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"en.20011112.11.1-130"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I, too, would like to start by expressing my thanks to Mr Maat. I think he has approached this subject in a very realistic way, many years of discussions on animal transport mean that, in my view, an emotional approach is no more use to us. Nobody, when talking about animal transport, means the kitten in the hand luggage on an aircraft, and nobody mentions the little dog on a lead on the Intercity train and certainly not the racehorse in its specialised horsebox on the motorway. No, in the Maat report we are discussing the well-being of animals on their way to be slaughtered.
Now, I have been in this House for a very long time, and so it is to the Commissioner that I am speaking when I say this: On paper, or so it seems to me, we have produced variations on this theme for years, and we have been constantly demanding more. All the same, we are still repeatedly shocked by the often intolerable situations revealed in individual cases by the checks, which are far too few and far between. Better transport conditions are wanted not only, indeed, by campaigners against cruelty to animals, but also by producers and consumers. In reports and amendments, we demand expert staff, purpose-built vehicles with adequate space for the animals to lie down in, ventilation, supplies of food and water and, for animals for slaughter, journey times limited to a maximum of eight hours.
The proposal to end the payment of export refunds for live animals is one which I find quite crucial and also particularly deserving of support. There are objections to this, amounting in the final analysis to this being an interference with the market. Even Jewish ritual slaughter is brought into the argument. I could smile a little at that, for even that is now possible in the EU. It would be better to transport the meat afterwards.
Commissioner, I find that a person's weak spot is very often his or her wallet or purse. More inspection, more controls, high penalties and loss of the licence where offences are found to have been committed, these would bring about more effective improvements for us all."@en1
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