Document type : written answer published in Journal officiel de la République française
Author: question: Mr Bertrand Sorre (Renaissance - Manche) Answer: French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty
Question: Mr. Bertrand Sorre draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty to the conditions under which live animals are transported during heat waves. Each year, millions of animals suffer while being transported due to high temperatures, as highlighted in particular by the European Committee of Inquiry on the protection of animals during transport in its report adopted unanimously by the European Parliament in December 2021. The former Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume adopted an order, on July 22, 2019, to restrict the transport of live animals during heatwaves. This order requires that animals should not be transported on journeys lasting between 13 and 18 hours in departments placed on amber or red alert on the day before departure, unless the truck is equipped with air conditioning systems or a combined ventilation and misting device. Thus, this decree merely establishes a principle of prohibition for a particular time-span expressed in hours, and this can be waived. This regulation is insufficient, as temperatures can exceed 30°C outside this time frame. Therefore, he would like to know if the Government intends to revise the decree of July 22, 2019 to prohibit the transport of animals between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. as a minimum, in departments where Météo France forecasts anticipate temperatures above 30°C on the day before departure. It is indeed essential to ensure better protection is given to animals during their transport, at a time when heat waves will become increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change. He would like to know its position on the subject.
Text of the reply: In the order of July 22, 2019, the Minister of Agriculture restricted the transport of live terrestrial vertebrate animals on national territory during heat waves. Other than for exemptions (vehicles equipped with specified facilities), the ministerial order prohibits travel between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. for departments placed under amber alert and above. The transport of live animals is, in general, strictly regulated. During a heat wave, as at any other time of the year, Article 3 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 of 22 December 2004 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations, states that "No person shall transport or cause to be transported animals in such a way that they are likely to be injured or to suffer unnecessarily. Animals must therefore be protected at all times from the weather, sunlight, heat or cold. They should not be transported in extreme temperatures that could cause avoidable suffering. European Union (EU) regulations also require inspection and approval of vehicles used for extended hours of transport. The main checks carried out concern: - the vehicles' ventilation systems to allow the temperature inside the compartments to be maintained between 5°C and 30°C, with a tolerance of 5°C depending on external temperatures; - the presence of temperature sensors allowing the driver to have continuous control of the temperatures inside the compartments; - the presence of a system to record these temperatures, the results of which must be kept available to the inspection services. In addition, in accordance with Article 5 of the above-mentioned European regulation, any person arranging animal transport must ensure that welfare conditions are not compromised due to insufficient coordination of the various stages of the journey, and that account is taken of the weather conditions at the start and throughout the journey. Inspections can be carried out by the monitoring bodies, in particular to verify that the maximum temperatures have not been exceeded. Thus, each year, as summer approaches, which is a period of risk for animal transport due to heat waves, a message is sent to all inspection services asking them to strengthen their monitoring of live animal transport. At the same time, FranceAgriMer sends a message to the national professional organisations. The ruminant interprofessional organization INTERBEV has also set up a dedicated page on its website to remind people of the rules to follow in a heat wave (https://www.interbev.fr/canicule). The European Commission has made the commitment, as part of the "Field to Fork" strategy, to revise EU legislation on animal welfare by 2023, including Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 on animal transport. The Commission's legislative proposal will be based on the recommendations adopted by the European Parliament on the protection of animals during transport, the results of the public consultation carried out at the end of 2021, the ongoing impact assessment, and the opinion of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), which has been tasked by the Commission to collect data on the protection of animals during transport and scientific evidence to support provisions to improve animal protection. Changes to legislation at European level, not only at national level, will make it possible to address the lack of precision in certain European provisions, which has led to differences in the requirements imposed by Member States and has distorted the relative competitiveness of professionals operating in the same sector. The strengthening of animal welfare requirements within the EU must, moreover, be accompanied by equivalent rules for the animals that have provided imported products.
