By Martin Banks - 11th January 2012
This petition proves that there are many, many people in different countries who feel strongly towards a change
World Horse Welfare
More than one million people have signed an online petition to improve the welfare of animals transported to slaughter across Europe.
According to campaigners, the response provides "overwhelming" support for shorter journey times for horses transported to slaughter.
Under the Lisbon treaty, the commission has to consider legislating on an issue if at least one million signatures are collected in a public petition.
World Horse Welfare, which has mounted a long running campaign on the issue, said the size of the petition reinforces its calls for the introduction of a maximum journey limit.
Eventually, it wants an end to the long distance transportation of horses across Europe to slaughter or for fattening.
At present, legislation makes it possible for animals, including horses, to be transported for 24 hours or more without rest.
Responding to the number of signatures, Danish Socialist MEP Dan Jorgensen said it "shows the big public demand for action".
"I definitely expect the commission to act on this. The aim is to put a ceiling of eight hours on live animal journeys."
He said new rules are needed to incentivise countries to slaughter animals as near as possible to the farms where they were reared.
Jorgensen is also collecting signatures from MEPs backing the eight hours campaign.
Parliament will officially back the campaign if 378 MEPs sign up to it by 15 March. So far 119 have signed.
"The commission always talks about how the EU should mean something for ordinary citizens. This is a very good example. It's clearly something the EU should do, it's a common problem, as animals are transported across borders," said Jorgensen.
His comments are echoed by Hannah Lynch, campaigns officer at World Horse Welfare, who said, "We believe that any push for change is a positive move and hope that this will put more pressure on the commission to re-think the current totally inadequate legislation.
"The commission's own scientific experts support the introduction of a finite maximum journey limit for slaughter. However, despite all the evidence, the commission have not proposed any changes to the legislation.
She added, "We were deeply disappointed at the end of last year when we found out that the commission wouldn't be adopting our recommendation for a 9-12 hour maximum journey limit.
"But this petition proves that there are many, many people in different countries who feel strongly towards a change to the current EU legislation."
"If the current legislation remains unchanged all animals, including horses, will continue to suffer."
The commission study last November found big variations in animal welfare across the EU.
It said that "few controlling authorities use the data collected to carry out checks" and that lack of enforcement "can have severe negative impact on animal welfare".
Current rules allow transports of live animals lasting longer than 24 hours but journeys of over eight hours are supposed to be more strictly controlled.
It found that 27.8 million live pigs were transported across borders in the EU in 2009 - by far the largest group of animals and a 70 per cent increase on the figure for 2005.
It also said that seven states - Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain - account for 60 per cent of cattle trade inside EU - and that almost 70 per cent of pigs are transported from Denmark and Netherlands.
The figures for other animals in 2009 were: 4.3 million sheep, 4.3 million cattle and 147,122 horses. For poultry the figure was more than one billion.
