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Animals: Transport

Answer

The number of farmed animals transported between Great Britain and its international trading partners in each of the last three years are shown in the tables below. APHA only hold export data for Great Britain. Import data has also only been provided for Great Britain for the purpose of consistent comparison.

Imports

Year	Number of farmed animals*
2014	144,177
2015	128,603
2016	72,936

Exports

Year	Number of farmed animals*
2014	44,923
2015	34,965
2016	68,205

*Farm animal figures include cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

This excludes fish, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, birds (including poultry day old chicks) rabies susceptible animals and ungulates. This also excludes dogs, cats and ferrets moving into and out of the UK commercially and under the Pet Travel Scheme.

The information is held by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on Defra’s and the Scottish and Welsh Governments’ behalf. Northern Ireland has a separate system.

The Government is committed to improving the welfare of all animals. The Government has always been clear that it would prefer animals to be slaughtered close to the point of production. EU rules prevent the UK from restricting live exports while it is a member. Our manifesto makes clear we will take early steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter, as we leave the European Union. We will set out proposals in due course.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

109499

Session

2017-19

Subjects

Animals Overseas trade Transport

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk