Dear Editor,
Live farm animal exports represent a rural version of the Aktion program
instigated as part of the Third Reich foreign policy to inflict a murderous
assault on the Jewish people.
Around Ireland farm animals are being rounded up for export to European
countries and non-European countries that now assume the role once held by
death camps like Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
Calves are loaded onto livestock trailers, akin to the Deutsche Reichsbahn
death trains, which are boarded onto ferries to mainland Europe.
On arrival the animals endure a long road journey to their final
destination where a slot in a foreign abattoir is their future.
Gallows humour is the inspiration to say these calves are the lucky ones.
Their forced removal from Irish dairy farms operates within EU animal
welfare regulations.
Spare a thought for Irish cattle with one-way tickets as they set sail
for countries like Algeria, Turkey, Libya, and Egypt.
The journeys involved are too long to be able to guarantee a satisfactory
level of animal welfare and the conditions for animals in destination
countries are often far below the minimum legal standards required in
Ireland.
A snapshot of what Irish cattle will endure can be found in the fact that
most animals in the Middle East and North Africa are not stunned – rendered
unconscious – before slaughter.
The live farm animal export trade, in which profit is systematically being
placed above animal welfare and respect for the law, should be consigned to
farm animal trade history.
It is a symptom of a greedy world economy which regards animals as goods,
placed on this planet for our own benefit.
Yours etc,
John Tierney
Chairman, Waterford Animal Concern
Larchville
Church Road
Waterford
