A packed public meeting on a rainy Friday evening in Ramsgate; no-one could have any doubt at the strength of feeling against the live animal export trade now going through the town’s port.
The meeting was opened by an impassioned speech from local councillor, Ian Driver, who took the initiative and called this meeting. Local people mingled with stalwart campaigners; veterans of past battles against live exports in Shoreham and Brightlingsea. The RSPCA were joined on the platform by, amongst others, leading members of the dedicated team from Kent Against Live Exports (KALE). It was a privilege to be part of the meeting; and to see so many people speaking out against a trade in live animals that is outdated, unnecessary and causes so much suffering to animals.
Before the meeting, I spoke to Meridian TV News; they had been busy getting sound-bites from local people in Ramsgate about live exports. They told me that finding someone in favour of it had been difficult; testimony to the overwhelming opinion against the trade locally.
Like so many of us, the campaign against long distance animal transport has been part of my life for decades. It’s a chapter I would rather see closed. It was one of the major issues that motivated Compassion’s founder, Peter Roberts. The campaign has brought together people from all walks of life. Together, we’ve had huge impact; at its height in the early-1990s, two million sheep and 500,000 calves were being exported live from Britain to continental Europe; staggering numbers. Last year, that figure was down to 4,000 sheep; the calf trade ceased all together.
What is deeply concerning is that Ramsgate is now hosting a resurgence of the live export trade; a trade that is both inhumane and unnecessary. Only this month, 2 consignments of British calves went from Ramsgate. These calves will often be reared in veal systems that would be illegal in the UK. There is also a major calf trade from Northern Ireland with 7,000 animals this year having gone to Spain and Hungary.
Many of the sheep will be going for slaughter. It simply cannot be right to transport animals over long distances simply to be slaughtered at the journey’s end. This problem is not confined to British live exports. Our recent investigation in Europe pointed to the kind of conditions these animals are often forced to endure; transported in overcrowded and filthy conditions, legs sticking out of the lorries and journeys lasting up to 23 hours long.
You can help. If you haven’t already, please sign the 8-hours petition. Please write urgently to your MEPs calling for European action to end the long distance transport trade and impose a total maximum journey time of 8 hours for animals travelling for slaughter or fattening. It is great to see that Peter Skinner MEP is supporting the campaign. If you live in the Ramsgate area, please write to your local councillors and MPs calling for urgent action. We are putting together an action pack to help you do just that. I will post it very soon. Thank you for helping make live animal exports a thing of the past.
It really upsets me to think of the misery and suffering these animals go through, it is so unneccessary.
Apparently, there is nothing as cruel as man he/she inflicts pain on so many creatures. We all know we have to eat, but an animal deserves a to have a happy life. Heres a thought, can anyone imagin what life would be like if there were no animals at all on our planet? We owe them so much, we owe them respect, Just take some time & think about it.
I am writing from Perth, Western Australia, the live export capital of Australia. On the 14th August there will be a national rally to ban live animal export. I am heartened to read that the community in Kent (and I’m sure many other places in the UK) are fighting against this disgusting, selfish and indefensible trade. We might be thousands of kilometres away, but know that we stand with you in your fight. One day, the world will wake up and realise the live animal trade is morally, economically and socially WRONG.
Greeted on way to work by three lorry loads of sheep on way to port at 9.15a.m. 21 September. So sad.
I can’t believe that after years of people fighting against live exports and winning, it is happening again. We pack our fruit and veg more carefully than we do living, breathing animals and whoever has allowed this evil to go ahead should be totally ashamed of themselves. There isn’t enough money in this world to warrant this cruelty and I am disgusted with this country and what happens to animals in the name of ‘food’ and ‘commerce’, it all comes down to greed and an absence of any humanity and compassion. I live next to fields with sheep and it’s not uncommon sight to see dead or dying animals and nobody ever seems to care because they are destined to be killed anyway. I am just so sad for the way farm animals are treated in this country.
Animals in mass farming in general don’t receive the love,respect and admiration they so deserve.We have to stop the greed and heartlessness and start viewing these sentient creatures as the complex,gentle and beautiful animations of life that they are and not the bar code that they have been reduced to.IT’S NOT RIGHT OR MORAL!!
Stop Killing Animals As They Are Sentient and Have Feelings like we do. Ban Live exports to overseas countries. I am now vegetarian.
I think everything wrote made a bunch of sense. But, think about this, suppose
you added a little information? I am not saying your information isn’t good., however what if you added something that makes people want more? I mean Ramsgate: Ban live exports
This is a very disturbing issue as this is meant to be the era of enlightenment, yet we slide further back into a black abyss treating our fellow earth sharers as nothing more than indispensable things to make money!