Letter: Distant slaughter

Sir: It is disgraceful that Britain will not support Germany's proposal for a European law to limit the time that live food animals are permitted to travel from their place of rearing to the slaughterhouse. ('Protest over slaughter of farm animals', 12 November). Before the new European Union regulations, when our government could have banned the export of live food animals from this country, it refused to do so for fear of putting our farmers at a disadvantage.

Now we are being offered the chance to negotiate on one of the 'level playing fields' so beloved by our ministers. It would be unforgivable if they did not co-operate fully with those who are trying to save all European live food animals from the avoidable suffering of long, painful, and sometimes even crippling or lethal journeys to unnecessarily far-away abattoirs.

Yours sincerely,

JOAN HAGGARD

Harpenden, Hertfordshire