Animal welfare NGOs, including Eurogroup for Animals, have advocated since a long time to adhere to the basic principles of reducing, refining and replacing live transport, whenever applicable.

Every day, a wide range of animal species are transported within the EU and beyond for commercial activities, yet the current Transport Regulation does not guarantee effective protection to all of them. Many animals, particularly those that are exported, might now spend days or weeks in trucks and ships on their way to slaughter.

One of the responsibilities of the ANIT Committee has been to look into whether the European Commission failed to act on evidence of "serious and systematic" violations of EU legislation aimed at protecting live animals in transit.

In the past, Eurogroup for Animals’ members recorrently  reported about incidences of animal suffering during transportation and revealed that the implementation and enforcement of the Transport Regulation is insufficient.They also provided science based evidence that its provisions are often unfit to ensure effective protection for the transported animals .

Early this year, the challenges of transporting live animals for food were brought to the forefront once again when over 3,000 young cows were slaughtered after spending nearly three months at sea on two livestock ships, the Karim Allah and the Elbeik.