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How you can help British calves
   Long distance transport overview > Live exports resume from UK > Action

 

© Coventry Evening Telegraph

As part of CIWF’s STOP LIVE EXPORT campaign, CIWF staff took to the road last September to actively lobby regional DEFRA offices and raise public awareness of the plight of UK’s calves.

The export ban on British cattle and calves, imposed a decade ago following the BSE crisis, was lifted on 3 May, 2006. Since then thousands of calves have left UK shores destined for EU veal farms. Some of these calves have endured journeys from as far away as Wales and Scotland - journeys that can take up to 20 hours. Research shows that young calves travel particularly badly.

CIWF’s continuing priority is to persuade the public and government bodies alike to call for an end, once and for all, to the trade in live exports of UK calves to continental veal farms that would be illegal in the UK.

CIWF advocates three humane alternatives to guarantee a better life for male dairy calves:

  • Replace the live export trade with a trade in meat carcasses.
  • British-born male dairy calves should be reared in the UK for sale as high-welfare alternatives, such as extensively-reared beef and rosé veal.
  • Switching to dual-purpose breeds of cattle which are suitable for both dairy and beef farming to ensure that male dairy calves are not a ‘waste product’

CIWF will campaign until the farming industry and the government take on board these alternatives – they represent the only sustainable and humane way forward for the UK dairy industry.

CIWF advises anyone wishing to buy veal, to buy British and preferably Soil Association organic standard veal, which encourages farmers to give calves access to the outdoors. You can find out more about the ‘Good Veal Guide’ at  www.goodveal.com. Compassion in World Farming applauds this initiative for providing better lives for calves through higher welfare rearing systems and thereby helping to save them from the inhumane live export trade.

Please support the CIWF live export campaign to end the export of British calves to continental veal farms, where standards may be considerably lower than in the UK.

Campaign Actions

Here are some of the ways you can help us to make a difference:

Lobby your MP

An Early Day Motion (EDM) for the Export of Calves has been tabled in the House of Commons - EDM 395. Please ask your MP to sign EDM 395 in support of ending calf exports. You can email your MP by using the following website: http://www.writetothem.com/

Details of the Early Day Motion:

TITLE:

Export of Live Calves

DATE INITIATED:

04th December 2006

PROPOSER:

Gwyn Prosser MP

EDM Number:

395

This House is firmly opposed to the export of live calves; supports the efforts of Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA to end this inhumane trade; deplores the fact that since the resumption of exports in May 2006 tens of thousands of young calves have been exported through Dover to the continent to be reared for veal; is concerned that some calves have been sent all the way to Spain on journeys that can take over 60 hours; fears that the volume of calf exports could rise substantially over the next year; notes that young calves suffer greatly during long journeys; further deplores the fact that shipping calves in severe weather has caused deaths and injuries; further notes that once they reach the continent, calves are often kept on concrete or slatted floors without any straw or other bedding; further notes that such barren systems are illegal in the UK; urges dairy farmers to end the export of calves; further urges the dairy and beef sectors and the Government to work together to develop humane and economically viable uses for male dairy calves; and calls on the Government to press dairy farmers to end the export of live calves.

Send our e-card

Please complete and send our calves e-card. When you click on "send now" it will automatically be sent to Hilary Benn (Secretary of State, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) asking him to do everything he can to persuade industry to trade in meat not in live calves

Thank you for your compassion.