About 1000 calves left Dover in the early hours of the morning, bound for Boulogne. Some came from as far away as Scotland and Wales.

Entry by Rowen West-Henzell, CIWF Communications Officer responsible for the campaign against calf exports:

We knew that Kent Against Live Exports (KALE) would lead a gathering at Dover Docks to mark the departure of the first shipment of calves. CIWF supporters attended in Dover and our French group PMAF organised a demo on the other side of the channel

Ian Birchall (KALE Chairman) reported back on Friday morning with times and details of the shipment. He said four lorries drove into Dover in the cover of darkness, boarded the ship, and set sail. It was a sad moment. I couldn’t help thinking of those calves throughout the day, where they might be on their journey and how they might be feeling. We got confirmation that some of the calves had reached a destination farm in Holland that afternoon. Any calves that went from Scotland to Holland would have been on the move for around 20 hours.

I remembered back to a conversation I’d had with the NFU’s Deputy President Meurig Raymond a few months ago – before exports had resumed. He assured me that it was unlikely any of the calves would be on the road for more than eight hours. Perhaps he didn’t think any would be sent from Scotland or Wales. Or perhaps he honestly believes that the journey time from Scotland to the continent is less than eight hours, but I’d like to see a lorry load of calves get to Dover in that time, let alone Belgium or Holland. Judging by an NFU leaflet designed to answer questions about the live calf export trade, it would seem that calves never travel longer than eight hours. We will be putting them straight on this when we meet the new president Peter Kendall on 18 May.