Regulations concerning the transport of live animals
The transport of animals is one of the most difficult and controversial issues related to animal welfare. It has long been a subject of public interest in European Union member states, as well as in Poland.
Community provisions and regulations concern the transport of animals within the European Union, to and from the Union, and in transit through its territory. According to EU regulations, member states are obliged to stop and prohibit the transport of live animals that does not meet EU standards. The first European Union directive on the protection of animals during transport was adopted in 1977, and new – currently applicable – provisions were adopted in 1991 and 1995. They concern the transport of the following animals:
– domestic solipeds and domestic animals of the bovine, ovine, caprine, and porcine species (farm animals)
– poultry, domestic birds, and domestic rabbits
– domestic cats and dogs
– other birds and mammals
– other vertebrate animals and cold-blooded animals.
The EU directive covers the transport of animals by all modes of transport and contains common provisions regarding transport conditions as well as specific provisions for individual modes of land, sea, and air transport.
An international convention regulating, among other things, animal transport issues is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, concluded in 1973 in Washington, the so-called CITES Convention, to which the European Union and its member states belong. Poland ratified this convention in 1989.
The growing importance of organizations dealing with animal and environmental protection, along with the development of air cargo transport, means that the requirements accompanying these shipments must be clearly defined. The basic document regulating the rules and conditions for the transport of live animals in air transport is the IATA Live Animals Regulations (LAR), developed in cooperation with the European Union and the aforementioned CITES Convention. In addition to IATA regulations, some airlines apply their own rules regarding the transport of live animals, which are also published in the LAR. The years 1997-1998 were a breakthrough period in legislation concerning the transport of live animals, when the basic legal acts regulating this issue in Poland were created.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2004.