Whitehall wants cover up
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by Juliet Parish and Steve McQueen • Local authorities have been ordered to get tough with hauliers who run illegal livestock trucks.
Next month the Government expects local authorities to start prosecuting any livestock carriers caught running without a roof or cover: they can be fined up to £2,000. Until now only a handful of hauliers have been reported for prosecution and many operators breaching the rules have been let off with a warning.
Local authorities complained that the new law failed to define what covering was needed, making it too vague to enforce. Now they have been issued with guidelines to help them judge whether the roof or cover meets the legal requirements. To do so it must:
I= Cover all the animals and con
fine them securely: Be water Be able to sustain the weight of snow or water which might collect on it;
_I Be supported to stop sagging; Provide enough headroom for an air space over the animals' heads; Fl Be adequately secured to the main body of the vehicle. The RSPCA is to introduce an approval scheme which will entitle accredited operators to display a kite mark on their trucks. The Freedom Foods initiative is due to be launched by the end of the year: it covers animals from birth to their final appearance on the supermarket shelves. To earn RSPCA approval hauliers will have to meet guidelines which could include using hydraulic ramps and decks; scheduling journeys to reduce animal waiting times at abattoirs; and fitting loading ramps with side guards.
A draft of the guidelines will be presented to the RHA later this month.
RSPCA assistant chief veterinary officer Alistair Mews says abattoirs and farmers will be putting pressure on the hauliers they use. to join the scheme and safeguard their animals. "Drivers tend to cut corners in loading and rushing around corners, so that the animals get squashed or I crash around," he claims.