Despite being revered worldwide for its high standards of living, economic
prosperity, and progressive animal welfare legislation, the European Union’s
laws on animal transportation both within the European Union and to so
called third countries (external countries) leave room for dangerous
loopholes to be exploited by animal producers. These gaps in legislation
present a number of welfare concerns for the continent’s 1.3 billion poultry
and 268 million cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats transported yearly (The
Parliament Magazine, 2020). As the world’s largest animal exporter (The
Guardian, 2021), the European Union has a moral obligation to honor its
commitment to animal welfare and set a global standard for the humane
transport of production animals.
The European Commission’s 2015 Pilot Project on animal welfare during
transport was designed to better understand and create guidelines for the
transport of livestock animals within the European Union (European
Commission, n.d.). As part of the Pilot Project, European Union Council
Regulation EC 1/2005 set out a list of clearly defined rules and regulations for
stakeholders involved in livestock transportation chains into and out of the
EU, and made official transport checks mandatory (European Commission,
n.d.). Despite being obligated to submit yearly animal transportation reports
and documentation disclosing deficiencies in the animal transport chain
within the European Union (European Commission, n.d.), many EU countries
still struggle to meet basic animal welfare standards. This issue is especially
exacerbated when animals are transported outside the EU to various third
countries (The Parliament Magazine, 2020). In one such case documented by
Compassion in World Farming, a group of bulls originating from Latvia were
delayed at the Turkish border for 6 days before starting on their 2000 km
journey to Iraq (Compassion in World Farming, n.d.). It is unclear from
Compassion in World Farming’s report whether these animals had access to
food, water, or shelter during their delay at the border.