Viva! 8 York Court Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QH Tel: 0117 944 1000 Fax: 0117 924 4646 email: media@viva.org.uk	5 February 2001 South West Farmers Urged Not to Export Sheep for Illegal Slaughter Photocall: Friday 9 February, 9.30 am, Exeter Livestock Market Viva! campaigners from across the south west will demonstrate outside Exeter Livestock Market this Friday, February 9th. Dressed in blood-stained sheep masks and carrying a giant, 18 foot banner and graphic photographs, they will urge farmers to refuse to export their cull ewes for illegal slaughter in France at the annual Muslim festival of Eid-el-Kabir. Eid-el-Kabir is due to take place on 7th March 2001. Each year in France, sheep are killed illegally at open-air sites - despite an EU legislative requirement which states that religious slaughter must only be carried out in licensed slaughterhouses. Thousands of British sheep are exported live to be slaughtered at the festival and many of the sheep sold for ‘further fattening’ in Europe this Friday from Exeter Market may end up being killed there. Viva!’s undercover film from Eid-el-Kabir 2000 shows conscious sheep being held down as their throats are cut with blunt knives. Animals waiting to be killed have their legs tied together with string and are left lying on the floor. Some sheep struggle and try to stand up. Others lie exhausted and gasping for breath. Local campaigner Paul Smith protested at the festival and was horrified by what he witnessed. He says, “I saw sheep with British ear tags being slaughtered. It typically took several cuts to slice the animals’ throats and they literally took minutes to die. No animal deserves to die in so much pain.” Mr Smith continued, “Farmers know very well that if they sell their old ewes for ‘further fattening’ in Europe at this time of year, they will probably end up being illegally killed at Eid-el-Kabir. These animals provide farmers with an annual crop of lambs as well as an annual government subsidy and yet they are repaid by being slaughtered in the most barbaric manner imaginable. “It is time for farmers to show their opposition to these illegal killings by refusing to export their sheep to the festival.” Ends