| dc.description.abstract | European Union policies, related to intra-Community trade, transporting live animals and food safety, aim to protect public health and the internal market by ensuring high levels of animal health, animal welfare, and food quality.
Council Regulation 1/2005/EC, which came into force in 2004, established new fundamental rules on the European Union's protection of animals during transport. It has changed the minimum standards for transporting live animals between EU countries, to protect welfare of animals and to prevent the occurrence and spread of infectious animal diseases.
At the beginning of 2019 the Dutch public’s opinion on long distance transport of pigs and related operations was ascertained by a survey research. This survey was carried out to identify current views and knowledge on this subject. Between February 25th and March 7th, 2019, a total of 439 people participated in this research.
The key objectives of this survey are:
- How citizens specify what constitutes animal welfare in general and what importance they attach to welfare of transported pigs.
- Determining peoples’ views on the relationship between transport and meat quality and the availability of products originating from animals not being transported: How do citizens specify the definition ‘’quality’’ of meat, can transport influence this quality and would they be prepared to pay more for non-transport meat?
- Assessing respondent’s awareness/ knowledge and perceived importance on elements of transporting live pigs, with a particular focus on information and education about this subject: What do citizens know about the transportation of live pigs and do they want to have more information on this subject?
The key findings of this survey are:
The majority of the Dutch respondents refers to animal welfare as proposed and defined by the Brambell Committee. Most respondents have negative thoughts on the information of welfare of farm animals and consider it not objective.
More than half of the Dutch respondents think chicken is the meat most consumed by people living in the EU and indicate to know about long distance transport of live animals in general, although, thoughts on the maximum transport time of live pigs differ. The possibility of pigs dying during transport is to most respondents a negative circumstance that must be prevented. The sample populations’ opinion differs on whether animal welfare of transported animals should be protected by private businesses or by public authorities.
Most respondents refer to the quality of pork, as it being safe to eat, or the taste being good. They think that this quality is negatively influenced by long distance transportation of the animals.
Most respondents would not buy pork from over long distance transported pigs and they would even pay a premium for pork to prevent pigs from being transported over long distances.
The majority of the Dutch respondents wish to have more information on transportation of animals. Animal Welfare Organizations is the opinion of the respondents, are the preferable institutions to provide more education on transported animals, according to the survey. | |
