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New data has highlighted the scale of a "loophole" that allows UK farm animals to be exported live, despite a wider ban on the controversial trade.

The previously unpublished export figures, released under freedom of information rules, show how more than 700,000 animals have been exported from Northern Ireland since the trade was outlawed in England, Wales and Scotland in May 2024.

This included 658,783 sheep, 32,380 pigs and 8870 cattle. Amongst the consignments were calves, some as young as two weeks old, as well as lambs, according to the records compiled by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA NI).    

The majority of sheep - more than 400,000 - were sent to Ireland, the records show, but thousands were transported overseas, including to mainland UK, as well as to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Ukraine, Romania, Germany, Portugal and Spain, amongst other destinations. Cattle and pigs were exported to Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Spain and mainland UK.        

In May 2024, government legislation banned the export of sheep, cattle and pigs from England, Wales and Scotland, but Northern Ireland - a powerhouse of livestock production - was granted an exemption.

Whilst the new data does not reveal journey lengths or routes, separate records, covering an earlier period of 2021 to 2023, illustrate the durations endured by some NI farm animals. 

In one example, a consignment of 350 sheep were loaded up at an assembly centre near Newry before being trucked then shipped then trucked again - via Dublin port in Ireland and Cherbourg on France’s channel coast - to the Occitanie region in the south of the country. After a journey lasting almost three days, the sheep arrived at an abattoir for slaughter and processing. 

Another saw almost 100 cattle from a farm near Moy being transported across the border into Ireland before being loaded onto a vessel bound for France. From there they were trucked down into Spain for delivery to a premises near the city of Lleida in Catalonia. The journey lasted five days. 

Abhorrent conditions

The journeys form part of a much larger trade in EU farm animals, exposed by AGtivist in 2023, which sees millions of livestock moved each year between countries, including to other farms, or to markets, slaughterhouses or assembly centres from where many are sent beyond European borders.      

Campaigners have long claimed that overcrowding, exhaustion, dehydration and stress are commonplace during such journeys, and that conditions along the “livestock chain” are often abhorrent.  

Last year, an explosive Irish television investigation broadcast undercover footage of Irish calves being mistreated at a cattle export facility in Kerry, with pictures revealing calves being struck in the face, force-fed, jabbed with tools and dragged around by the ears and tail.

The revelations followed an earlier programme highlighting EU regulations being flouted: filmmakers followed a consignment of calves as they were moved by truck, and boat, from Wicklow in Ireland to Cherbourg in France, and on to Barcelona in Spain. The animals received minimal breaks and were not rested in accordance with regulations, the programme found. Driving time limits were also broken, according to investigators. 

Standards onboard transport boats have also come under scrutiny. In 2021 it was reported that thousands of cattle were stranded at sea for months after two vessels, bound for Libya from Spain, were refused entry to multiple ports owing to an apparent outbreak of bluetongue disease. Multiple animals died. In 2019, thousands of sheep perished after a transport ship capsized after leaving Romania. Only around 200 animals survived from a consignment of more than 14,000 - rescuers found some sheep swimming in the ocean, whilst most downed.  

The livestock industry has defended the wider trade in livestock on economic grounds, claiming that animal movements are only made in response to demand. They also state that animal welfare remains a priority, as it only makes commercial sense to export healthy animals, pointing out that some factors - such as increasing distances to slaughterhouses, as a result of abattoirs closing - are beyond its control. 

In NI, some estimates have suggested the export trade is worth as much as £70 million annually, a significant sum for farmers operating in sectors characterised by low margins. Industry bodies argue that without the option to export livestock, fair competition would be compromised and ultimately lead to a reduction in prices that farmers receive. 

Critics say economic arguments - however persuasive - cannot justify the ongoing suffering, especially when the rest of the UK has extricated itself from the trade. They also say that alternatives exist: slaughter animals near to the point of production, then export the meat. Whilst such a move is dependent on abattoir capacity, as well as investment in cold storage facilities, refrigerated vehicles and other infrastructure, it is possible, they argue.