Despite having delivered more than 1 million signatures to the European Union, over one year later citizens and animal defenders of Europe are still waiting for an answer.

June 7th 2013, marked the first anniversary of the request made by more than one million (1,103,248) European Citizens to limit the transport of animals for the purpose of slaughter to no more than 8 hours.

One year has passed since the Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European NGOs, together handed in more than a million signatures petitioning the European Commission to stop the long-distance transport of live animals.

The European Commission has so far failed, both to respond to the democratic voice of its citizens, and to improve animal welfare measures for millions of animals transported over long distances on European roads to be killed in slaughterhouses. This additional suffering could be easily avoided by killing the animals in slaughterhouses close to farms, and then transporting the meat and carcasses.

It is not only European citizens who are being ignored, but also their elected representatives.

In March, the European Parliament adopted Written Declaration 49/2011 which supports the demands of the "8 hours" petition. Last December it adopted the Wojciechowski Report, which calls for the establishment of an 8 hour limit to the duration of transport. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) also explicitly proposed shorter journeys for horses among other changes to the Regulation. None of this has helped. It is even more disappointing if we take into account that between 2005 (when the Regulation came into force) and 2009, the numbers of live transports have actually increased by 32%.

Carmen Méndez, President of Ngo ADDA, said: "When absurd and irrational practices endure over time, we have to assume that there are powerful lobbies that are interfering to avoid the application of a logical and humanitarian solution to this situation"