Bavaria Bans Animal Transports to 17 Countries

Bavaria's Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (Freie Wähler) announced today a ban on long-distance animal transports to 17 non-EU countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, and Morocco. The reason cited is doubt over compliance with EU animal welfare regulations. PETA explicitly welcomes the measure taken by the Bavarian Environment Minister and is now calling on the environment and agriculture ministers of the remaining 15 federal states to adopt the ban list. Since Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, who is close to the agricultural lobby, criticised the actions of the states as "rushed" just a few days ago, no solution is to be expected from the federal government. Four weeks ago, the animal welfare organisation presented nearly 29,000 signatures in support of a long-distance transport ban to Thorsten Glauber — collected in just two weeks.

We applaud Mr Glauber for this compassionate measure, which will spare many thousands of animals immense suffering. Bavaria has set the benchmark — now the other federal states must show their colours and issue bans as well.

Lisa Kainz, agricultural scientist at PETA.

Severely injured animals being dragged from lorries by a single leg, exhausted animals — more dead than alive — forced to endure days on transporters at border crossings in sweltering heat or freezing cold: this must finally become a thing of the past!

In January, the Bavarian state association of civil service veterinarians called on the state's Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection to examine the criminal liability of official veterinarians in connection with the continued approval of animal transports to third countries. PETA welcomes this demand, as animals are still being carted thousands of kilometres to other countries — for example to Turkey, the Middle East, or the Maghreb states. Numerous reports have documented that they are routinely slaughtered there under conditions that amount to animal cruelty. For instance, their throats are often cut without prior stunning.

On the prohibited list are: Egypt, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. According to the ministry's findings, adequate facilities for caring for animals along routes to Central Asian states east of Moscow have not yet been documented.

The European Court of Justice ruled in its landmark judgment of 23 April 2015 (Case C-424/13) that European animal welfare law applies all the way to the destination country of an animal transport. Yet although numerous provisions of the European Animal Transport Regulation can be neither complied with nor enforced — whether inside or outside the EU — German veterinarians frequently approve transports to non-EU countries. On Wednesday, 13 February 2019, a report on the state of implementation of the European Animal Transport Regulation (EC Regulation No. 1/2005) was also presented to the European Parliament, identifying significant shortcomings both in the regulation itself and, in particular, in the member states' enforcement of its provisions. The report concludes that member states are implementing the regulation inadequately and that the objectives of the 2005 regulation are not being met.

«I hope that as many federal states as possible will now follow Bavaria's lead in order to protect the animals,» Glauber appealed. The Free State also intends to push for a uniform solution at the federal level. «Together with the federal government, we will clarify whether animal transports to these third countries should take place at all,» said the minister. He announced that Bavaria would submit a motion on animal welfare in animal transport for the Agricultural Ministers' Conference in April in Landau in der Pfalz.

Part of PETA's motto reads: animals are not ours to eat or to exploit in any other way.