Noah’s ark. The first recorded instance of animal transport. Its purpose was benign. To save the creatures of the earth from the impending flood. Throughout its course they were cared for and nourished.

Nowadays animals are transported not for their benefit but for ours. Crammed into livestock trucks, they are hauled huge distances across Europe without food, water or rest. They arrive battered and bruised. Some do not survive the journey. Their well-being is given scant importance. Governments mouth the right words about welfare, but those words are empty of commitment and action.

And yet this need not be. It certainly should not be. In the Old Testament story at the end of the flood God established the covenant of the ark. This was not just with Noah but with the fowl, the cattle and the beasts.

‘I will remember my covenant’, said God, ‘which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh’. We, however, seem to have lost sight of our side of the bargain, and daily inflict great suffering on other living creatures. We have indeed come a long way from Noah.

by Joanna Lumley

Humanity has over the centuries shown a notorious predilection for inflicting pain and suffering on the weak — both of its own species and others.

Here is the sad story of a modern betrayal: the story of how a system of free trade took precedence over compassion; of how our nation, and others, systematically subjected farm animals to horrendous suffering en route to vile deaths. It’s a tale of tiny calves, torn from their mothers and shunted from one country to another to face a life of solitary confinement and immobilisation; a tale of young lambs snatched from green fields and moist hillsides to dehydrating and stressful journeys in overcrowded trucks going from country to country, only to end up at slaughterhouses where animal welfare is an unknown concept.

Philosophers may indulge in endless debate about whether animals have rights. Most of us would agree that at least they have a right to a decent quality of life and to be slaughtered as painlessly as possible.

But surely the vital question is — what right do we humans have to exploit animals like this? Surely just being the stronger, more technologically developed species confers no intrinsic right to prey on weaker creatures? Can it be that farmers, exporters, and haulage contractors have a right to make rich pickings — no matter what the suffering of the aminals involved? No? Then can the god of free trade be justification in itself?

Because as soon as one protests at the horrors of the live export trade one comes up against official Ministry of Agriculture cop-out-speak — ‘our hands are tied’ ... ‘we cannot ban the trade because of the European treaties’ ... ‘we would be taken to the European court’ ...

Peter Stevenson has done an excellent job investigating this disgusting trade in misery. Compassion in World Farming has worked tirelessly to highlight the suffering inherent in the live export trade. I can only hope this book will help achieve that change of heart which is so badly needed in our bureaucracy and government. Indeed one is led to wonder if governments which allow such cruelties have ‘heart’ at all?

We proudly regard ourselves as animal lovers — we believe that Britain leads the way in Europe on animal welfare. How wrong we’ve been. Any country that complacently exports thousands of animals a day to a fate worse than death — but often including death — deserves no accolades.

A Far Cry From Noah truly lives up to its title. My hope is that it will activate and motivate as many people as possible so that our government is forced to listen to our demands for an end to this intolerable trade in living creatures. As long as we do nothing, the suffering will continue. So I urge you all to read this essential story. Read it, rage, repent ... but above all, read it.

Editor’s Note: I too urge Ark readers to buy a copy, read it — and pass it on. Although published in 1994, it is still relevant and important reading. The transport of live animals for slaughter anywhere in the EU, other than to local abbatoirs (which are fast disappearing), must be stopped by law and the law enforced.