New PETA Billboard Goes Up to Bring Live Exports Down

Posted by Chelsea Munro on June 18, 2021 | Permalink

PETA has just erected a huge billboard calling for an end to the cruel live-export trade, in which cows, pigs, sheep, and other animals are packed on crowded ships and lorries and suffer immensely on their way to slaughterhouses in the EU and beyond.

Mark Sharratt

The action follows the introduction of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill in Parliament last week, which, if passed, would see the UK ban the live export of animals for slaughter and fattening – at long last.

Animals can’t wait any longer, so we need to keep speaking out against the cruel trade until the bill becomes law.

Production: feelfactory; 3D: Ilya Gureev; Advert agency: HOP-HOP Illustrations

You can get a good look at our billboard on Buxton Road, Ramsgate CT12 6QF – conveniently positioned near the Port of Ramsgate, from where many animals are shipped out of the UK.

Why Live Exports Should Be Banned

Hundreds of thousands of live animals, including babies and pregnant females, are exported from the UK every year.

Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

They endure long journeys in dangerous, filthy conditions and in all weather extremes, causing distress, injuries, and illness – and risking the spread of zoonotic diseases around the globe.

Video footage from a capsized ship in Romania with 14,000 sheep onboard. This is the reality of live export. Don’t wanna support this? Then stop eating meat. pic.twitter.com/1bECx8HOgC

— Ari Solomon (@VeganAri) November 25, 2019

The animals can be in transit for days, often without sufficient food, water, or rest, and many die as a result. When they leave the UK, the marginally better legal protections afforded to them here are left behind, and many of them endure hideous deaths in horrendous conditions that would be illegal here.

How the UK Could Become a Leader in Animal Welfare

Animals raised for their flesh already suffer tremendously – the least we can do is spare them the unnecessary trauma of a dangerous and gruelling journey overseas before they’re killed. PETA is calling on Westminster to pass legislation banning the live-export trade – a stain on our society – without delay and for other nations to follow suit urgently.

If the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill is enacted, the UK would become the first country in Europe to implement such a ban – it would be a huge victory and a historic moment for animals!