Over 900,000 people have already signed the 8hours petition which aims to put an end to long-distance journeys for animals sent for slaughter in the EU. Signatures will continue to be collected until 5 January 2012, and the target of the organisers is to hand in to the European Commission over one million signatures, making it one of the biggest animal welfare campaigns in history.
Meanwhile, support for 8hours is growing in the European Parliament too.
86 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from 19 member states and all political groups have already chosen to voice their support for the campaign by signing the petition, and many of them have also had their photo taken holding the 8hours poster. You can see the updated list of supportive MEPs and their photos or videos on the dedicated page of the website.
The European Commission recently published a report on the effects of Regulation 1/2005 ‘on the protection of animals during transport’, which calls for stricter enforcement of the legislation. However it fails to propose a reduction of journey times, which means that many animals are still destined to suffer for entire days on European roads.
