The good news is that over 30,000 Britons have signed the “8 Hours” petition calling for an end to the long-distance transport of animals in Europe. The bad news is that the petition server crashed and five precious days were lost! Have you signed yet? If not, now is definitely the time to do it. www.8hours.eu
OneKind is backing this Europe-wide campaign, which aims to present one million signatures to the European Commission by the end of this year. Already the campaign has secured the support of over 300,000 people. The aim is to bring to an end the severe suffering endured by transported animals.
Sadly, flooding in Copenhagen, where the server is based brought it down for five days with the loss of thousands of potential signatures. The system is now fully restored, so if you haven’t added your signature yet, or were unable to do so while the server was offline, please do so now. Then encourage your friends to do the same.
Friday afternoon. This means 5 days completely lost, because nobody could access it!
Huge numbers of farmed animals are still transported alive under unacceptable conditions on European roads, only to be slaughtered on arrival. Current EU legislation makes it possible for animals to be transported, in confined conditions and without proper rest and care, for several days. This has to change. Live animals sent for slaughter should never be transported for more than eight hours in total.
By the end of this year the European Commission is expected to publish its report on the impact of Regulation 1/2005 on live animal transport. This report may contain legislative proposals.
One million signatures will be a loud wake-up call to the European institutions, reminding them that citizens reject the additional suffering currently being inflicted on many farmed animals.
To sign the petition, please visit the www.8hours.eu website or download printable forms to collect signatures from friends.