Appeal to European Ministers of Agriculture:
“Ban Long Distance Transports”
On 14 November, the German
organisation “Menschen fuer
Tierrechte” dispatched thousands of
fluffy sheep, cows, pigs and poultry,
carefully attached to the sides of an
“animal”-transport truck, from
Germany to Belgium. On 17
November, they were joined by
many other toy animals from all corners
of Europe in front of the EU
Council building.
Hannelore Jaresch from
“Menschen fuer Tierrechte” stated:
“We sincerely hope that this fluffy
animals' revolt is going to reach the
hearts of the Ministers of
Agriculture, because only a transport
limitation of up to a maximum of 8
hours, as demanded by the European
parliament and, a few days ago, also
by the German Upper House of
Parliament, would be a step in the
right direction”.
Banners attached to the truck
demanded an end to long-distance
transports which often last 30 to 90
hours. Many animals do not survive
that ordeal, others get critically hurt.
Attached to most of the toys were
appeals and notes on which the
donors had expressed their strongly
felt objection to these deadly transports.
The action had been organised by
the European Coalition for Farm
Animals (ECFA), a European-wide
coalition of animal protection organisations
under the leadership of
CIWF/UK and with the members
“Menschen fuer Tierrechte”/GE and
GAIA/BE – among many others.
Representatives of 26 organisations
from 12 countries participated
and demonstrated against the blatantly
insufficient protection for animals.
The Ministers of Agriculture of
Germany, Belgium, Britain, Holland
and Sweden met speakers of the
coalition and listened to ECFA
appeals to improve the present transport
conditions.
A truck filled with fluffy animals,
mountains of colourful toys on the
pavement and activists slogans
caused a lot of interest, not only with
the media who took photos and prepared
television footage during the
entire duration of the campaign but
also bypassers showed concern,
some of them even wanted to buy the
toys. However, that was not possible
because all the toys were reserved
for children in need who are going to
enjoy them at Christmas.
Herma Caelen
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