Transportation
Being wrenched from the familiar environment of the farm and loaded onto lorries is just the beginning of the nightmare for animals during transportation. As well as fear and pain associated with handling, they may also suffer from heat, cold, motion stress, hunger, thirst, exhaustion and the risk of infection from other animals.
Lorries have changed little over the years and whilst the food industry may invest a fortune in the packaging and transportation of frozen foods, little effort has been made to improve the ventilation, flooring, suspension and ramps on lorries for the movement of live animals.
Animals may be taken from market to another farm or directly to a slaughterhouse. The trend now is towards fewer and larger slaughterhouses with a huge turnover of animals each year. With slaughterhouses being situated farther apart, animals are forced into longer and longer periods of travel.
Cattle actually travel better than some other farm animals because they are able to withstand the cold and heat. They are also able to hold larger amounts of food and water in the rumen. This means they may ultimately take longer to suffer from hunger and thirst. Far from being a point in their favour, this presents them with very special problems.
Because they are stronger animals very few actually die on the journey. If pigs or poultry were transported under the same conditions as cattle, a radical reassessment of transportation would be forced to take place because very few animals would actually reach their destination! Thanks to the strength of the poor cow there is no real incentive for the industry to change.
In addition to the psychological stress during transportation, minor injuries are common in cattle transported by lorry or trailer when there is insufficient bedding material or inadequate restraint.
Because of the BSE disease, any cattle over the age of 30 months are removed from the food chain under the 30 Months Scheme. However, some meat from animals slaughtered over 30 months of age is still sold under Quality Assured Schemes.
Legislation
On 1 January 1997 new legislation came into effect within the EU regarding the transportation of live animals. There is now a maximum journey time of 8 hours for all basic vehicles.
However, vehicles of a higher standard will have a longer maximum time limit - for cattle this will be 14 hours - to be implemented on 1 January 1988. A review of the implementation and enforcement of the new legislation occurs in 1999. Implementation of transport legislation within Member States has always been slow and patchy.
A 1996 report by the Commission's Veterinary Inspection Office reported that during their visits in 1995 and 1996, many countries had yet to impose legislation agreed in 1991. The RSPCA states that 1997 will not see any radical improvement of the welfare of animals during transport. Confusion surrounding different approaches taken to implementation by different countries will result in a general 'free for all', an evasion of the regulations and a reduction in the standards of welfare for those animals being transported.