RTÉ Investigates, Live Exports: On the Hoof

Tonight in a special report on Prime Time, RTÉ Investigates broadcasts new undercover footage of Irish bull calves being cruelly treated including recordings at a major cattle export facility in Kerry revealing calves being repeatedly struck in the face, force-fed, jabbed with tools and dragged by the ears and tail. 

RTÉ has continued to investigate the treatment of Irish calves in the wake of Europe-wide interest in its major report published and broadcast in July 2023, RTÉ Investigates: Milking It, Dairy's Dirty Secret. It exposed how EU regulations on the transport of live animals were being broken as Irish bull calves were transported by truck to mainland Europe. The programme also raised major questions about the treatment of animals at marts in Ireland. 

Leading animal welfare expert Dr Simon Doherty of Queens University Belfast described what he saw in the footage to be shown tonight as cruelty: "I think where there's kicking and screaming and slapping and prodding with pitchforks, that is at the cruelty level." 

The footage was filmed in Hallissey Livestock Exports in Fossa, near Killarney in March this year. It was recorded on cameras secretly placed and brought onto the site by animal rights campaigners, and provided to RTÉ Investigates. 

Denis Drennan, President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), said what he saw in the new footage is "completely unacceptable."  Watching the footage, Mr Drennan said "there's a man there with a stick beating calves. It's completely abolished and against the law, and there's a man there with a pitchfork, trying to run calves out the gate - completely unacceptable." 

Calves are prepared for export on trucks at the facility. Denis Drennan says footage of two calves being force fed using stomach tubes raises concern about why they are at the facility in the first place. "The rules and regulations say that if an animal is not fit to travel, it shouldn't travel. It's going to damage the reputation that we have across Europe of providing top quality, fit, healthy animals," he told RTÉ Investigates. 

Tonight's report also shows how dead animals were piled into a mound and left to rot outside the facility in Kerry, which raises major disease-risk concerns, according to Dr Simon Doherty of Queens University Belfast.  

Cameras captured over four days several dead calves being removed from sheds. Some were dragged out by farm hands, others lifted using a teleporter. They were placed on a mound of dead and decaying calf carcases lying in the open air, rain pouring over them.  

Dr Simon Doherty of Queens University Belfast said it appeared some of the animals have been there for weeks. "If those are still within sight, sound, smell of other living animals, I mean that's just absolutely fundamentally wrong from a welfare perspective, there's a huge disease risk," he said. 

"It looks like they're just thrown in a heap somewhere. I just really don't understand, it beggars belief that somebody would leave animals that length of time around their premises," said Denis Drennan.  

The report reignites questions raised by RTÉ Investigates last year about the treatment of Irish bull calves here during the live export process. Following the 2023 RTÉ investigation the then Taosieach Leo Vardkar, described the cruelty exposed as "repugnant" and he told the Dáil that the Department of Agriculture would commence a "robust and timely" investigation into the incidents highlighted. 

In response to queries from RTÉ a solicitor for Hallissey Livestock Exports said that their client's business "provides a valuable service to the farming community and at all times takes reasonable care to ensure it does so in a manner which protects the welfare of the animals in its charge." Pointing out that Hallissey Livestock Exports Limited is regulated by the Department of Agriculture, the solicitor's letter states, "while no system is ever perfect, it is satisfied that its business is compliant with the highest standards." 

Tonight's special report will also feature footage of the condition hundreds Irish calves were left in after being exported across Romania and onwards to Israel. RTÉ Investigates traced their journey and witnessed the Irish calves exiting transport vehicles in Haifa Port in Northern Israel. 

Israel has had an increased demand for cattle imports from Romania since several countries ceased transporting live exports to it after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Research by RTÉ Investigates found that thousands of calves originating from Ireland are listed as Romanian in official Israeli import figures.