Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
END HORRIFIC LIVE ANIMAL EXPORTS
The next time someone suffering from Remoanervirus asks you to name a benefit of leaving the EU, try this.
Britain is rightly banning the export of live farm animals, ending the suffering they endure over long journeys in trucks and ferries, only to be slaughtered in countries with minimal regard to welfare.
Livestock will instead be slaughtered in this country before being exported, a reform that was not possible while we were a member of the European Union due to its obsession with free movement of goods.
There’s no starker example of the horrors of live exports than the Elbeik, a ship that’s roamed the Mediterranean for three months with a cargo of around 1,800 young bulls.
No country would accept the animals over fears that they were diseased.
Animal welfare groups have reported that 179 are already dead, with the rest facing being put out of their misery by the authorities in the Spanish port of Cartagena.
The horrific picture above of a dead bull being hoisted off the ship was taken by the animal welfare group Four Paws.
Its director of farm animals Dr Martina Stephany is calling for an immediate halt to live animal transports in the EU.
“Instead of transporting live animals in agony for weeks, we need the transport of meat,” she said.
“Sentient beings deserve to be treated with dignity.”
More than 850 young bulls from another ship, the Karim Allah, were put down in
Spain earlier this month after Turkey refused to let them be landed.