Every day at least five million animals, united by the disorienting label of "livestock", travel all over the world, by sea and by land, headed towards death. The intensive production of these animals is growing steadily; according to a study by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, poultry accounts for 70 per cent of all birds on the planet, while 60 per cent of mammals are made up of livestock. Not only production, but also the export of live animals has seen exponential growth over the past fifty years.

How much exports have increased

In 2017, according to the Fao, nearly two billion live animals — including pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep and goats — were transported and shipped around the world, aboard ships or lorries, on journeys that can last a few hours or more than six weeks. Despite advances in refrigeration technology, the export of live animals is still preferred because it makes it possible to avoid installing costly equipment to keep meat frozen.

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The number of animals exported, according to the Guardian, which produced a chart using Fao data, has grown enormously over the past half-century. In 1967 it was 130 million, in 1977 260 million, in 1987 440 million, in 1997 680 million, in 2007 one billion, rising to the current figure of 1.9 billion.

Profits, too, have naturally grown enormously. In 1988, according to data from Comtrade, the UN's trade statistics database, the global trade in live animals was worth 716 million dollars, while in 2017 it reached 21 billion.

The sorry record of chickens

The most farmed, eaten and exported animal in the world is the chicken. The global export of live specimens of these birds, endowed with reasoning abilities that can rival those of some primates, and even capable of empathy, has increased sixteenfold in fifty years. The Netherlands and Germany are the countries that export the most chickens; in 2017 they collectively sent nearly 700 million around the world. Exports are directed mainly to European countries, but also to Asian and African nations, such as Thailand and Uganda.

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Which countries import and export the most animals

Among the main importers of sheep are Middle Eastern countries, supplied mainly by Romania, the EU's third largest sheep farmer, after Great Britain and Spain. The United States, known for its high meat consumption, imports mainly pigs from Canada and cattle from Mexico.

In 2017, 6.2 million pigs travelled from Denmark, the largest exporter of pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, to Poland. Four million chickens were exported from the Netherlands to Thailand and 640,000 sheep were shipped from Australia to Qatar.

The cattle trade

The leading exporter of live cattle is France, which has been exporting over one million animals a year since the 1970s. The majority of the animals exported in 2017, around 980,000, were destined for Italy.

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Inhumane journeys

During transport, the physical and psychological wellbeing of animals crammed into cramped spaces, suffocated by heat or exposed to the elements is frequently put at risk. It is precisely the appalling conditions during transport and the slaughter conditions in destination countries (the NGO Eyes on Animals has documented, for example, harrowing practices such as the cutting of tendons in the legs of cows to prevent movement before slaughter in numerous slaughterhouses in Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia) that are among the reasons why animal rights organisations are calling for better regulation of the sector.

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This issue recently resurfaced in connection with the sinking of the dilapidated cargo vessel Queen Hind, which capsized on 24 November last off the coast of Romania, claiming the lives of nearly 15,000 sheep. Organisations reiterated that, in this type of export, it is impossible to verify whether the requirements imposed by the EU on transport and slaughter are actually being observed.

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Who must reduce animal suffering

The World Organisation for Animal Health (Oie) is the intergovernmental organisation responsible for improving the health and welfare of animals worldwide. It cannot, however, enforce compliance with the rules it establishes — a task that falls instead to individual governments.

We are still animals

If anthropomorphising animals is profoundly wrong, denying that they are sentient beings, capable of experiencing emotions, is even more so. It is not so hard to imagine what might go through the mind of a cow stuck for days in a metal container covered in urine and dung, with high levels of ammonia, as it desperately tries to press its muzzle against the vents to breathe in a little air. It does not matter that these animals are destined to die regardless; the least we can do — not only for them but also for ourselves — is reduce their suffering.