The report details the events at Ramsgate Port on 12 September 2012 that resulted in the deaths of the sheep that were due to be transported to France.
NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond said: “We have been calling for this report to be released since the events in September, having sent over 150 questions to AHVLA which we believed needed to be addressed. The report gives an insight into the events of that day but still leaves many questions to be answered, by both AHVLA and the RSPCA, who it appears exerted significant influence over government officials on the ground.
“It is highly concerning that, although the RSPCA has no official role at the port, from an early stage, they were making objections to agreed contingency plans, making interventions from their legal team and, within an hour of a problem being found, they had “instructed” AHVLA officers to unload animals at the port, despite RPSCA previously highlighting the lack of suitable facilities for handling animals.
“The NFU also still has questions about why the method of slaughter used by the RSPCA officers resulted in so much blood in the photographs that were taken and released to the media by the RSPCA. We cannot understand how the method of slaughter referred to in the report resulted in the blood patterns seen in the photographs.
“Not only that, but from the photographic evidence, it appears that the sheep were slaughtered together in a pen, in front of each other. That was after the RSPCA had objected to AHVLA’s original plan of euthanising one injured sheep on the transporter, and then sending the transporter on to a local facility in line with the agreed contingency plans, on the basis that the RSPCA felt it wasn’t appropriate to carry this out in front of the other animals.
“We cannot understand why the RSPCA published the photographs of the event and sought to make so much of the incident in the media, given the catalogue of delay and indecision identified in the report, the very clear influence of the RSPCA in the decision making process, and the fact that it was the RSPCA’s officers that slaughtered the sheep. We call upon the RSPCA to clarify what role their ‘inspectors’ at the port are there to fulfil.
“We now need to fully digest the report and we remain committed to working with Defra and AHVLA to ensure that British livestock can be traded freely but that both the standards and the enforcement of animal transport activities in the UK are maintained to safeguard animal welfare.”