Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-30-Speech-2-057"
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"en.20040330.3.2-057"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I, too, would like to begin by thanking the rapporteur, Mr Maat, most sincerely for his report because he really has tried to reconcile the very contrary positions of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy in a document that we can live with.
I would also like to support what has already been said today. Animal welfare must be dealt with scientifically and not just emotionally. The avoidance of unnecessary animal transports and the protection of animals during transport are fundamental concerns of agriculture, especially of farmers and producers. It must be ensured, however, that the statutory provisions are realistic and that their enforcement will not place our European farmers at a competitive disadvantage. It must all remain within a sensible economic context and it must also comply with the European Union’s laws. That was also something that Commissioner Byrne mentioned.
It is of course in everyone’s interest – farmers, animal welfare and the animals themselves – that animals should arrive at their destination safe and sound and in the best possible condition. This is particularly the case of animals for slaughter because the quality of the meat depends on it. Let me make one observation here, Mr President: once the animals leave the farm, they are in fact no longer the producer’s, the farmer’s responsibility, but the responsibility of the carrier or buyer.
I am also very grateful to the rapporteur for paying attention to traditional pasturing and transhumance, which is absolutely essential in mountain regions.
One last thing. An international organisation called PETA is currently mounting a large-scale campaign in Austria, and I believe in other Member States as well, about the keeping and slaughter of farm animals. The treatment of animals is being compared with the horrors of the Nazi regime. That is an insult to all those who perished in the Holocaust, and I ask you to protest against it."@en1
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