Should farm livestock have access to water during transit?

ANIMAL WELFARE in transit within Scotland is a success story of which the whole industry can be proud. Long gone are the days when stock arrived at markets, abattoirs etc in cramped conditions and transported in vehicles unfit for the job. EU regulations are obeyed to the letter of the law, with a myriad of policing systems and swingeing penalties for anyone who transgresses.

However, we are fast getting to the stage – if indeed we haven’t already – where enough is enough. Any tightening of rules will simply mean that further exodus of livestock will take place from our remote areas. More importantly for regulators to take note, is that there will be no animal welfare benefits.

The derogations that are in place in the Highlands and Islands are there for a reason and must be maintained. Further changes to journey times, for example, must be resisted. Yes, the mooted changes might be somewhat down the line, but the Scottish livestock industry cannot afford a repeat of the sheep EID fiasco which has seen nonsensical and draconian measures imposed.

Indeed, the sentiments about trusting your haulier regarding the numbers to carry and withholding water during transit made in Morrs Pottinger’s letter to the editor this week make perfect sense. The necessity to provide water in journeys within a country with a climate like Scotland’s are totally unreasonable and counter productive as they stand.

A common policy for all of the EU makes perfect sense in many matters. However, when it comes to animal transport, ‘one policy for all’ regulation is totally useless. Member states – and devolved administrations within member states – should be allowed to apply their own local solutuions as long as they can prove to state vets that they are not compromising animal welfare.

And for those who persist in blatant breaches of sound welfare practice, the book should be thrown at them, with the threat of expulsion from the EU levelled at those countries which condone the systematic cruelty of animals in transit within their borders.

A good starting point would be to insist that the desk-bound bureaucrats who draw up the rules be made to visit and, indeed, routinely travel with with hauliers in each and every country. Then they would be in a position to judge right from wrong!