ICSA president Dermot Kelleher has welcomed the decision of European Parliament to reject proposals that would place severe restrictions on animal transportation. “ICSA has lobbied hard on this issue; we have engaged with all Irish MEPs as well as our partners in Farm Europe to ensure the original proposals put forward by the ANIT committee were dismissed,” he said.

ANIT committee proposals to ban the transportation of unweaned animals under 35 days, to limit the journey time of weaned animals over 35 days to two hours, and to ban the movement of pregnant animals in the third trimester were all voted down by the European Parliament sitting in Strasbourg today, January 20.

Continuing Mr Kelleher said, “While the highest standards of animal welfare must always be maintained, the transport of animals is integral to the vast majority of livestock enterprises. Not only were these proposals completely unworkable in a practical farming sense they were also extremely detrimental to animal welfare. It is certainly a day when common sense has rightly prevailed.”

ICSA acknowledges the support of Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher; Fine Gael MEPs Sean Kelly, Maria Walsh, Deirdre Clune and Colm Markey; Sinn Fein MEP Chris MacManus; and Independent MEPs Mick Wallace and Luke Ming Flanagan, all of whom met with and worked with ICSA on this issue in recent weeks.

ENDS