The Dutch Food and Safety Authority (NVWA) has announced today (10 September) it will impose fines on four Irish transport companies if they fail to feed the young calves at the required intervals during the journey from Ireland to the Netherlands.

The move has been welcomed by Compassion in World Farming as a significant breakthrough and important step in the growing momentum to ban the cruel, long-distance transport of unweaned calves entirely.

The NGO is calling on the EU to also take action to enforce the transport regulations against the Irish Government for allowing this unlawful transport of unweaned calves. And it is calling on authorities in other EU Member States that receive Irish calves to follow the lead of the NVWA and take similar enforcement action.

More than 160,000 calves, some as young as two weeks old, have been shipped from Ireland to France this year alone. By the time they arrive in France they have already gone for over 18 hours without food. This is in breach of EU animal welfare law.

They are then transported on to the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe including Spain and Poland.

This year, the Netherlands was the the destination for over 40% of unweaned calves (aged 0 to 6 weeks old) transported from Ireland, making it the biggest customer of Irish calves.

By taking action, the Netherlands joins the EU Commission in recognising that these cruel, long-distance journeys breach EU law. The transporters will be fined €3,000 per violation, rising to €27,000 for a fourth offense.

Eloise Shavelar, Global Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at Compassion in World Farming said:

This decision sends a powerful message – that animal welfare law cannot continue to be ignored and those profiting from the suffering of very young calves will finally be held to account.

We welcome the Dutch authorities for stepping up to end this cruelty, taking action where the EU Commission has failed to act. The Commission can no longer look the other way while calves endure unlawful sea journeys. It must act now, and Irish Ferries should immediately end its involvement in transporting unweaned calves on these routes.

Today's announcement is the latest sign that pressure is mounting on the live export trade. Within the space of a year, two major ferry operators have stepped away from transporting live farmed animals. Stena Line withdrew its Ireland to France service in October 2025, while Brittany Ferries recently announced it would no longer carry live farmed animal transport lorries.

Compassion in World Farming is now calling on Irish Ferries to immediately stop the transport of unweaned calves on the cruel, long-distance journeys where they are unable to be fed, as well as urging the EU Commission to urgently enforce this important legislation.

Over 70,000 people have already emailed Irish Ferries calling on them to stop accepting this unlawful trade on their ships. People can join the campaign to end this cruel trade.

~ends~

Notes:

In its audit report dated 22 December 2023 (DG(SANTE) 2022-7503) the European Commission stressed that, in its view, the transport of unweaned calves from Ireland to France is being carried out in breach of EU Regulation 1/2005. The Commission interprets the Regulation as requiring unweaned calves to be fed after a maximum of 19 hours of transport. This 19 hour point is reached during the long sea crossing by RORO ferry from Ireland to France. However, the calves are not fed during the crossing.

A Commission overview report (DG(SANTE) 2023-7925) states that “including loading and unloading, the calves may go without feeding for up to 24 hours”. In some cases it may be even longer than this. This is confirmed by van Dijk et al (2023) who state that calves sent from Ireland to France by RORO: “can experience repeated feed withdrawals of longer than 24 h”.

Dutch authorities crack down on cruel calf transport