A live animal export shipment
will be leaving Ramsgate Port on Wednesday 20th July. Animal
transport lorries are expected to arrive at the port at 8pm. Campaigners will
be gathering at the Harbour Approach roundabout (Canterbury Road East) and
outside the entrance to the port from 7pm. Please try to be there.This cruel and barbaric trade has been operating from Ramsgate Port since May 2011. In that time hundreds of thousands of sheep and calves have passed through the port in horrendously cramped conditions, with limited access to food and water, in lorries awash with faeces and urine. The animals are transported on long journeys lasting many hours across the UK and the EU and on arrival at their destinations face a cruel and brutal ritual slaughter.
Some of those involved in this cruel trade from Ramsgate have criminal records for breaches of animal welfare laws. Yet despite being found guilty of animal welfare offences they have been rewarded for their cruelty by sharing in a £4.6million compensation payment which was ordered by the High Court following action against Thanet Council for suspended this trade in 2012.
If you care about animal welfare please try to join us on Wednesday at the port.
There is a public meeting on Tuesday 19th July 7pm at the Oak, Harbour Parade, Ramsgate at which will be discussing our campaign to stop this brutal trade. Everyone welcome – young or old.
I hope to see you there Ian Driver
PART ONE
ReplyDeleteObservations on some parts of the Live Animal export trade from Ramsgate Port Summer 2015.
This trade is conducted for Profit and to service the religious festival animal sacrifice associated with EID. It is not in my view conducted with animal Welfare interests at its core. It is also my view that the various UK Regulatory Authorities covering most parts of this trade, fail for reasons best known to themselves to challenge the regular differences and infringements of EU/UK regulations which should be complied with.
Those National Agencies are all aware of these differences. and they are all aware of what is actually happening. So is it being regulated ineffectively, incompetently or are politics and profit the driving force. Because from the data I have analysed, this livestock transportation exercise is based upon a rubber stamp effort. And does not uphold responsible Animal welfare standards throughout.
APHA have indicated that if the Transporters filed on their Journey log approval what they actually did in Practice. Then approval for those Journeys could not and would not be granted by the UK regulatory authorities. The UK regulatory Authorities receive the Journey Log on completion of the transportation schedule from the Transporter, including what the driver claims to have done en route. I say claimed because again from observation of some of these completed Journey logs, it is clear that some massaging of the truth has taken place on en route log entries. Again all these very obvious differences ( JL entries) have gone unchallenged by the UK regulatory authorities.
PART TWO
ReplyDeleteExample One --- On 23 July 2015 a journey log was approved for a 53 hour journey with two drivers to include a 24 hour animal rest break at an approved EU Control post. In practice that journey turned into a 32 thirty two and half hour continuous journey for the 551 sheep on board. The driver recorded journey times differed from the regulated sheep hours which are calculated from first sheep on board to last sheep unloaded. Rest time for the Sheep was calculated by the driver to include time spent on board Joline. But animal rest time on board the Joline cannot be approved by the UK regulatory Authority because it is not within the UK /EU regulations. But it is claimed to be a part of an “Interbove ruling used by the Dutch Transporters. It has not been confirmed whether this Interbove ruling is included in the Dutch or French EU regulations. The Dutch Authorities declined to answer my further questions on this. All time spent on board the Joline IS calculated under the EU/UK regulations as a part of animal travel (journey) time. This is why the Dutch transporters are required to file their Journey log application using the EU/UK regulations. But it is my view that the entire journey is only authorised, based upon the transporters UK approval application. And the Dutch transporter does not in my view have any right to change that application to suit his commercial schedule. IE saving his overall operation significant time and Money .It is also clear to me that on this particular journey the animal travel time exceeded the maximum permitted regulation journey time. Also the driver maximum hours permitted under EU law was grossly exceeded. On driver legal hours WIT ( Welfare in Transport UK) have told me they are not responsible for checking Driver legal hours. But again DVSA have been advised, but I am not aware of action by them on this or on subsequent occasions against such very serious driving infringements. These driving Infringements impact directly upon road safety and Animals in transport safety. I will also add that the driver entry for this journey indicated that he was delayed
PART THREE
ReplyDeletesome one and a half hours by the Port Protest at Ramsgate. I personally calculated the delay to be some 17 minutes only. The driver used this entry as an excuse not to rest the animals en route but to proceed direct to destination. This is just one typical Returned Journey log entry; I could print others on a regular basis in the same style. But it in all aspects went unchallenged by the UK Regulatory authorities. WHY incompetence, poor monitoring of returned data or the easy option rubber stamp or perhaps politics. In short a failure to enforce animal welfare as existing within EU and UK law. A cart and horses driven through the UK and EU regulations on nearly every aspect of this Live animal export Transportation. I will input another observation hopefully before your meeting on 19 July. This will be on the three trailer loads of Sheep that the Transporters claimed were delayed at the Onderwater Control post in France for three days. The transporter claiming the client was not ready to receive the sheep. But delivering them closer to EID and having them signed for against Transporters which were at the same time back at Ramsgate Port for the next shipment. My enquiries as to what happened to these three trailer loads of sheep after delivery to the Onderwater Control post remain unanswered by APHA/WIT since 03 March this year. Seven of those sheep apparently died at the Onderwater lairage from over eating. Or did they die en route to somewhere else? Another destination, an unlicensed slaughterhouse perhaps or even a private sale. There is very little that you can believe about any aspect of this Dutch Transportation exercise. Except that it is done for Profit backed up by the current state of UK politics. Who following the Ransgate Sheep deaths said that a zero tolerance to breaches of animal welfare in transport would be insisted upon. Is there any chance of that Occurring ? Can the Minister tell us why the export of sheep for slaughter under these circumstances is necessary purely for the Profit of a few or to meet a religious festival involving animal sacrifice? This style of export trade rightly provokes controversy and costs the taxpayer large sums of Money. It might be called under politics legal, but is it right? Is it conducted in strict compliance with the UK regulations, and if not why not. Any journey including work time associated with that journey in excess of very simply 20 hours a day cannot legally be undertaken by two drivers, but it is happening. How can sheep be transported in excess of 30 plus hours. That would need FOUR drivers per lorry.
PART FOUR.
ReplyDeleteNext stage what happened to those three transporter loads of Sheep delivered to the Onderwater Control Post in France on 20 September 2015. I am still waiting for the answer Minister. And until some satisfactory explanations backed by verifiable evidence is forthcoming from the Dutch Transporters, it would seem reasonable to me that all further shipments by this group are cancelled or suspended.
Can the port gates and road tunnel be blocked by cars and vans?
ReplyDeleteI mentioned in my earlier report about the three transporters that departed Ramsgate Port on 19 September 2015 Look for Confirmation on KAALE website.
ReplyDeleteDeparture Ramsgate Trailers OF-68-RN OK-16-YN and OD-39-DD All three returned Journey Logs indicated that the client was unable to accept the live Sheep until 23 September 2015. And that the Sheep were unloaded at The Onderwater EU Control Post ( Lairage) on 20 Sept.
Those same three trailers were signed for as having completed their Journey on 23 Sept. One Trailer also continued travelling with a Part load on the 24 Sept. some 5 sheep died on that journey. Their deaths were listed as eating too much at the Onderwater Lairage in France.
But on 22 Sept 2015 those three transporters were again listed on the KAALE website as departing Ramsgate Port. On 23 Sept. Two of those trailers were again listed a departing Ramsgate Port.
OD-39-DD and OK-16-YN. I have asked WIT Welfare in Transport Carlisle for some explanation as what actually happened to those 1432 live sheep as the trailers were back in the UK loading up again on the dates signed for at Destination on 23 and 24 Sept . I was notified on the 06 March 2016 that Onderwater Transporters had been asked for some answer by WIT. NO ANSWER has been received. If those Sheep had been transported elsewhere for slaughter then official documentation would have to have been approved and a record kept. NO Records, No explanation. No prosecutions on the excess driver hours issue. And every time these transporters use the Joline as animal rest, and recorded it as such. When no provision for animal rest is contained within the UK regulatory approval given by WIT. WIT /APHA have indicated to me that if the transporter applied for approval, doing what he actually does. Then NO UK approval could or would be granted. But these Changes, Irregularities, and failures to comply legally with such things as driver hours are a regular feature of each and every one of these journeys.
Well said Roger Broad and reg no's etc useful - where are the RSPCA? Animal welfare and 40 sheep getting shot would end this trade from Kent
ReplyDelete