Animal Exports and the EU
by Martin Deighton
In response to the MEP John Flack’s letter in the EADT. Mr Flack’s assertion that the EU forces the UK to export live animals in not true. In 2007 the UK livestock industry accepted EU rules that imposed strict controls that protected the welfare and safety of animals under transport. Many of us can recall with shame the conditions under which animals were transported within the UK and from the UK prior to the establishment of EU rules. The new EU rules were minimum standards and the EU nations are at liberty to add further rules and restrictions. In the case of the UK, we could at any time pose rules that forbid the export of animals that are to be slaughtered in ways that are cruel or unacceptable.
Indeed, the UK could have imposed additional welfare rules that made the export of animals from our shores virtually impossible. However, such an imposition would be unreasonable in the case of the export and import of breeding stock for herd and flock improvement.
It should be noted that a blanket ban on the export of animals by the UK could be overturned not by any EU rules but more probably by the WTO rules we will have to adhere to after Brexit.
The people of the UK have been misled and we continue to be misled by false assertions designed to justify Brexit.