Europe cracks down on animal transport

Feb 27, 2008 ... The UK branch of the RSPCA says strict regulations governing the transport of animals in the European Union has led to better welfare standards. Each new truck has to have a GPS device, and the movement of every animal is logged.

Nations can be sanctioned if they are found to be transporting animals inappropriately. Julia Wrathall from the RSPCA says Australia can learn from what's being done in the EU.

"But certainly a number of them, a number of the rules that we have in place, for example, the one relating to competency of the hauler, which in the EU requires that the hauler has an understanding of the physiology and behaviour of the species they're transporting and that they understand, for example, the impact of their driving style on the animal welfare, those things are very relevant where ever animals are transported," she says.

Australia is heading in a similar direction. National legislation will be introduced this year for the transportation of livestock. Luke Fraser from the Australian Livestock Transporters Association, says enforcement will be the real issue."Anyone out there who knows all the problems we have not having enough police to look after human issues would know that governments find it very difficult to enforce things, just in terms of resources out on the ground," he says.

"If you tried to have animal welfare inspectors running around in cars with flashing lights that's a big burden and it's not necessarily going to get to the heart of the problem all the time"