Compassion in World Farming campaigners gathered at the port outside Brittany Ferries headquarters in Portsmouth, UK, on Saturday to call on the company to reverse its decision made earlier this year to resume the live export of farmed animals from Ireland to France after a 30-year hiatus.
The event marked the tenth annual Ban Live Exports International Day which was first launched in 2016 to mark the anniversary of 13,000 sheep dying on a sea journey from Romania to Somalia.
Live export involves farmed animals enduring overcrowding, exhaustion, dehydration, pain and stress, often with little or no legal welfare protection, says Compassion in World Farming.
Brittany Ferries joins competitors, Irish Ferries and Stena Line, which continue to facilitate live animal exports including the transportation of very young unweaned calves who are just a few weeks old.
P&O, however, continues to refuse to export live farm animals for fattening and slaughter.
Compassion for World Farming states that so far this year over 140,000 unweaned calves, under six weeks old, have been exported from Rosslare, Ireland, to Cherbourg in France via Stena Line, Irish Ferries and Brittany Ferries. The majority are bound for veal farms. By EU law, these young animals, having been separated from their mothers, must be fed milk replacer, but this is not possible on such a long sea crossing.
A recent EU Commission report (2025) acknowledges that the transport of these unweaned calves is a welfare failure stating “calves are not fed at the required intervals.” This follows the Commission’s 2023 audit which in its view: “…the transport of unweaned calves from Ireland to France is being carried out in breach of Council Regulation 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport.”
A complaint has been submitted by Compassion in World Farming France on behalf of over 100 global NGOs to the EU Parliament calling for urgent action to stop the live export of unweaned calves from Ireland to France.
Anthony Field, Head of Compassion in World Farming UK, said: “As the holiday season approaches, we want to make Brittany Ferries’ customers aware of the suffering that animals onboard its ships are subjected to and urge them to avoid travelling with the companies that profit from this appalling trade.”