100 years of refrigeration — why are animals still transported live?
History repeats itself at animals’ expense
Sometimes, it feels like we’ll never learn. That our mistakes of the past are just waiting to resurface, to be repeated all over again. That our promises to do better are just window-dressing for a harsher reality. It seems particularly pertinent when anniversaries come round to remind us that something as wrong as exporting live animals over long distances, simply to be slaughtered at the other end, just aren’t necessary. And haven’t been for a long time.
And so, it was with a big sigh of disbelief that we heard the news earlier this year that Brittany Ferries was resuming live animal exports from Ireland to France. Dame Joanna Lumley and Pauline McLynn joined forces with over 120 high-profile individuals, experts and civil society organisations to condemn the decision.
Out of kilter
It seemed to particularly go against the grain as Britain had just banned live exports from Scotland, England and Wales to the continent only a year before. The ban from Britain in May 2024 finally enshrined in law the will of the people, many of whom had come out to protests around ports and docklands around the country for decades.
Finally, the voice of reason had been heard. Action had been taken to condemn a redundant and cruel trade to the history books where it belongs. Scientific evidence shows that when live animals are exported or transported long distances, they often suffer extremes of temperature and are deprived of rest, food or water.
It doesn’t take a scientist to know that putting sentient beings into lorries and taking them on journeys that can last days, causes them fear and distress.
Must do better
While Great Britain introduced a ban on the live export of farmed animals last year, and Australia has announced the end of the live export of sheep by sea from 2028, the trade continues in the EU. It is a matter of shame that the EU’s current revision of its animal transport rules is appallingly weak. Journeys can last several days or even weeks, exposing animals to exhaustion, dehydration, injury, disease, and even death. Some 44 million farm animals annually have been found to be transported between EU member states and exported internationally, many of them on long distance journeys lasting eight hours or more.
The trade is flourishing owing to the rising demand for meat in some parts of the world: European companies are cashing in on the need to stock farms in countries such as Libya and Vietnam with breeding and fattening animals. For some countries — including Spain, Denmark, Ireland and Romania — livestock export is still seen as a key part of the farming economy.
Yet it is not only cruel, but also totally unnecessary.
Redundant for a Century
This year is the 100th anniversary of the invention of the first refrigerated truck. Made for the ice cream industry in 1925 by American inventor, Frederick McKinley Jones, it meant that chilled desserts, or carcases for that matter, could be transported over long distances and arrive in great condition.
From that day on, loading cattle, sheep and pigs into lorries to ship them abroad for slaughter was no longer needed. Instead, they could be slaughtered at a local abattoir and the carcases transported to wherever they are required. Refrigerated sea transport has an even longer history. In 1877, the French steamer Paraguay completed the first successful travel with its shipment of 5,500 frozen sheep carcases from Argentina arriving to France in reportedly excellent condition despite a collision that delayed the delivery for several months, thus proving the concept of refrigerated ships.
From that day on, we’ve never needed to subject live animals, often young animals just weeks old, to long distance sea journeys for slaughter or fattening again.
Blind persistence
Yet, we carry on despite clear evidence that doing so causes profound harm. Recommendations published recently by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), identified multiple welfare concerns in the transportation of live animals including “group stress, handling stress, heat stress, injuries, motion stress, prolonged hunger, prolonged thirst, respiratory disorders, restriction of movement, resting problems and sensory overstimulation”.
The EU is believed to be the world’s biggest live animal exporter. What fuels this outdated trade? Not need. Not compassion. Just cold, hard cash. A backward pursuit of an outdated economic model whereby animals are treated as inanimate objects and where farm specialisation has fuelled a trend towards fewer, but larger farms and slaughterhouses. Against this backdrop, meat producers aim to minimise production and slaughter costs, maximise revenues and optimise economies of scale by exploiting cost differences between member states.
And who pays the price? The animals. The voiceless creatures whose purity of spirit, innocence and blamelessness renders them defenceless in the face of unyielding, uncaring and backward-looking practices.
To throw another pertinent anniversary into the mix, this June sees the tenth International Ban Live Exports Day raising awareness of the scale and impact of these cruel journeys by land and by sea and sending a clear message to the companies that profit from this misery that it is totally unacceptable. Brittany Ferries, are you listening?
Philip Lymbery is Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming International, President of EuroGroup for Animals, a Board Member of the UN Food Systems Advisory Board, a former United Nations Food Systems Champion, an animal advocate and award-winning author. His latest book is Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future
Note: This article was first published in The Scotsman on Friday 13th June, 2025
