Chester Chronicle letters

Mar 12 2004 Daily Post

I WOULD very much like to respond to the article in the Chronicle about the live export of horses and ponies to the continent.

The European Commissioner responsible, David Byrne, published his proposals for a new legislation in July. My Labour colleague Robert Evans has already met Mr Byrne to express our concern at the weakness of the proposals.

These suggest that the animals in question would endure a travelling period of nine hours prior to a resting period of 12 hours. These animals would then be subjected to a further nine-hour period of transport, this continuing in a cycle for an unlimited period of time.

Unbelievably, Mr Byrne has also suggested that during the 12-hour period of rest the animals would remain on board, giving them no space or freedom during the entire journey. This is intended to counter the fact that loading and unloading the animals is perceived to be the most traumatic experience of the entire journey.

The proposal, however, does have some positive points. Examples include mandatory training for drivers and improved vehicles, including proper ventilation and strict conditions.

Yet so far, the current EU animal transportation regime has failed to provide the satisfactory framework needed for the protection of animals in transport. This is due to a lack of proper enforcement by Member States. The result: animals face long journeys, often without food, water, ventilation or space, leading to death en route or poor health on arrival.

It has been suggested by the animal welfare organisation Eurogroup that animals should be slaughtered as close to the place they were reared as possible, thus the live animal trade would then be replaced by carcass trade. It is also believed that the period of transportation for animals going for further fattening or slaughter should also be limited to a slightly more humane eight hours.

The Commission's proposal will now be put to the European Parliament for an opinion before the EU agricultural ministers decide on the final version. This will hopefully take on board the amendments and support the overall eight-hour journey time limit, which is a workable solution to the problems caused by long-distance animal transportation and one which I fully support.

I have been lobbying the European Commission for the past 14 years on this issue, as well as other animal welfare issues, and will continue to do so in my capacity as an MEP for the Chester area of the North West region.

BRIAN SIMPSON MEP

IF YOU are not already aware, you will be horrified to find out that British horses and ponies could once again be exported live from the UK to face a long, uncertain journey to their death in Europe. We must act now to stop it.

A British law that has stopped our ponies from being exported alive for slaughter for more than 35 years looks as though it could well be lost, just because it is not recognised by the European Union.

I am supporting the ILPH (International League for the Protection of Horses) Say No to Live Exports Campaign to pressurise the Government and the European Parliament to stop the resumption of the live traffic. Their online petition (at www.ilph.org) and paper petition are due to close at the end of February and will be presented to the European Parliament in March.

We must now write to our MPs so that they, in turn, can pressurise the Government to act to protect our horses and ponies. If you have not supported the ILPH campaign before, but would like to do so now, please call 0870 366 6910 and leave your name and address on the recorded message.

Alternatively, go to www.ilph.org,  where you will be able to download a sample letter you can send to your MP, find out all about the campaign and sign the online petition.

We must all act now, before it is too late, to stop our horses and ponies suffering long, tortuous journeys to their deaths in foreign abattoirs.

I was delighted to see the coverage you gave the ILPH in the Chronicle and thought it was excellent. So many people haven't a clue that such extreme cruelty takes place. Thank you.

J M A BARRY Sandy Lane, Chester

RE 'Support for silent sufferers' published in the Chronicle, March 5.
I FEEL I have to write after reading the above mentioned article.

I am furious and most upset to discover that Karen Dalton at the Miscarriage Association is portraying the baby garden at Blacon, Chester, as, I quote: 'Where miscarried and stillborn babies are cremated'.

This is absolutely not the case. My own child is buried there and she was a live birth.

You will note simply by looking at many of the headstones that not all babies there have been miscarried or stillborn, but many have died of one of many different causes, which individually are all too difficult for anyone to comprehend, unless they have suffered that grief themselves.

I am appalled that a photograph was taken behind somebody else's recent grave (of whom the parents are very good friends of mine) to advertise the association.

I know many of the parents who have had babies that have died and been buried at Blacon, Chester, and, on my own and on their behalf, would appreciate an apology for this most hurtful and distressing misinformed article.

S JONES SANDS member, South Street, Boughton, Chester

EDITOR'S NOTE: There was obviously no intention to cause any distress to anyone who has been affected by the loss of a child and we do apologise if anyone was upset by its content. The main focus of the article was on mothers who had suffered a miscarriage or whose child was stillborn because Karen Dalton had set up her association to help people in this position. This is why the article did not refer in any detail to babies who had lived but subsequently died, but we are grateful to this correspondent for the points she makes and are happy to print her letter to clarify the situation.

I HAVE no desire to get involved in tittle-tattle letters, but I am compelled to respond to P Barnard's letter in Points of View of 27 February, compelled to say thank you for reinforcing the points made in my letter in the Chronicle of 20 February.

In P Barnard's letter the quotes given are only partial quotes, deliberately meant to mislead the reader. For example, Mr Ancram is quoted as saying: 'The Foreign Secretary has already clearly shown that Saddam Hussein possesses a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and that he continues to develop such weapons.'

His quote should have been completed as Mr Ancram continued by asking the Foreign Secretary if he thinks that 'Saddam has shown that he is prepared to use them aggressively, not least against his own people; that he regards the United Nations and its resolutions and inspectors with contempt; and that, unchecked, he poses a growing threat to the union and beyond?'

The Foreign Secretary replied: 'I have already put on the record a synopsis of some of the compelling evidence against Saddam Hussein, the danger that he poses and his continual flouting of the obligations of the international community and the Security Council of the United Nations...'

And so I could go on. The point is that politicians are too used to using manipulating opinion by this very kind of misrepresentation.

It is absolutely right that Mr Howard and Mr Ancram accepted the integrity of the intelligence information given to parliament, as did almost every senior politician in Europe, including President Chirac.

If it turns out that the evidence used by the Labour Government to justify going to war was not reliable, or was manipulated in interpretation, then there ought to be an inquiry, which is what Mr Howard has repeatedly called for, albeit in vain. It's that simple really.

I am here to campaign for what I believe the people of Chester deserve and my campaign will be based on my values, principles and beliefs.

PAUL OFFER Prospective parliamentary candidate, City of Chester Conservatives

FOR a once-proud farming county let down by economic incompetence in the 18 years of the Tories, what do we see from New Labour, the same fiscal dishonesty to a diminishing living and working countryside.

At the age now of 63 and being born on a farm at Mobberley, with no future home, no furniture nor material possessions, the one-time nurseryman wiped out by the winter of 1981-2 and hailstones, left with a Jobseekers Bill (Allowance) which is both uncomplimentary to the member state's inequality-driven legislation, so long as it is not our clueless MPs on their £56,358 a year salaries living in their luxury countryside homes while the neglected and degraded are left to such incompatible legislation.

To the Cheshire elite, county councillors also, just why do they sit back and allow such a countryside structure be transformed into a leisure, business park or anything other than meeting the elements of local needs for the ailing villages.

Defra at Crewe are in breach of their own incompetence, while they earn as regional officers up to £89,000 a year, I have to say that I would not pay either MPs nor those in Defra buttons for what damage they have furthered to such a countryside.

JOHN E WILLETT Future of Rural Society, Eastgate Road, Holmes Chapel