RSS Press releases

Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Trading Standard Service recently joined forces with Police Scotland , the SSPCA and Trading Standards Scotland to monitor Animal Transportation and Consumer Goods at the Stena and P&O ports in Cairnryan.

Animal Health and Welfare Officers worked with the Police and SSPCA and targeted animal transporters. A similar operation carried out at the same time last year highlighted many problems with Horse Passports, with many horses travelling without passports and some transporters found to be in possession of a significant number of passports which were not accompanied by horses.

The recent horsemeat scandal has highlighted the importance of effective enforcement of horse passport laws to ensure that horse meat which should not be entering the human food chain does not end up on supermarket shelves. Compliance with these laws will go a long way to preventing this from happening.

Over the course of six days a large number of vehicles were stopped, and only a minority required follow up action. The vehicles stopped contained an approximate total of 12,000 animals, including horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, donkeys, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. The welfare was generally very good and the correct documentation was provided in the vast majority of cases.

The Council’s Trading Standards staff also worked with an investigator from Trading Standards Scotland, the new national body which hosts a specialist Intelligence Unit for national level consumer crime. Working together with the Port Unit Police, the three agencies were able to gather intelligence on traders suspected of being involved in counterfeiting and doorstep crime.
Further multi agency work of this type is being planned at the ports in the future.

Councillor Ian Carruthers, Chair of the Council’s Planning, Housing and Environment Committee said:
‘This operation demonstrates how several agencies working together can make a greater impact. Sharing of information, skills and resources between services who are seeking the same output makes sense. The Council recognises that enforcement work at the Ports is an important part of animal welfare and consumer protection and impacts far beyond the boundaries of Dumfries and Galloway.’

Detective Sergeant Lynn Fulton commented

'Officers from Police Scotland’s Border Policing Command at Loch Ryan Port participated in a multi agency operation. Police officers stopped and searched transporters, trailers and caravans in order to identify whether the vehicle or the contents were stolen.  The combined resource of the operation provided a robust law enforcement presence and also provided a highly visible deterrent. '