Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Photo – CIWF.

www.ciwf.org.uk/slats  

The pig industry is about to succeed in getting Europe to approve fully slatted floors. We have just weeks to stop them.

Please, will you take a moment to demand that European Agriculture Ministers reject fully slatted flooring as the ‘best available technique’ for pig farming?

A European reference document to define ‘best available techniques’ for the intensive pig industry is being negotiated. A threat looms: fully slatted flooring for pigs risks being recognised within this document as the ‘best available technique’, despite it being the worst system for the animals. We have just weeks to prevent this huge backward-step for pig welfare in Europe – please, act now.

For many years, Compassion supporters have campaigned to improve the conditions in which pigs throughout the EU are reared. Thanks to you, last year we submitted a petition with 475,576 signatures to Europe’s Agriculture Ministers. This called on them to ensure that the rules set down in the EU Pigs Directive are respected and that pigs are protected from the worst excesses of factory farming.

Now, a European document that defines the ‘best available technique’ for intensive pig farming is being negotiated. The pig industry is about to succeed in getting fully slatted floors approved within this document – and we have just weeks to stop them.

Pigs are curious and intelligent animals that use their snouts to explore and root around. This decision will result in Europe’s pigs living in a completely barren environment without a single activity to occupy their time.

How can fully slatted floors be the ‘best available technique’?

The worst cannot be ‘the best’

In reality, these floors are not compatible with good animal welfare: European law, in place since 2003, requires pigs to have materials like straw in which they can explore, rest comfortably and nest before giving birth. Fully slatted floors can make the provision of straw impossible. By declaring that fully slatted floors are the best available technique, the European Commission will be endorsing an environmental practice that goes against its own laws on animal welfare.

The argument, that fully slatted floors make it easier to dispose of pig waste and keep areas clean, is also weak: pig waste is 10 times more polluting in water than human waste and has been a major cause of an ecological disaster in Brittany, France, where vast algal blooms have plagued the sea along the coast.

Fully slatted floors are not permitted, or will be phased, out in the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. This is because, in reality, this system has no environmental benefit and is the worst available technique for the pigs’ welfare.

It is unacceptable that European authorities are prepared to sacrifice animal welfare laws and the environment to endorse a method of production that would simply benefit the intensive pig farming industry.

Please write to your Agriculture Minister today and call on them to reject fully slatted floors as the ‘best available technique’.

Thank you for your support – Please Act Now

– We have LIMITED time left !

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