Brittany Ferries to End Transport of Unweaned Calves

Animal-welfare organisations have welcomed the decision after a sustained international campaign, although changes to the company’s fleet appear to be an important part of the story.

By The Brittany Times | Web Exclusive | 4 August 2026

Roscoff-based Brittany Ferries is preparing to stop transporting unweaned calves between Ireland and France, bringing an end to a controversial service that has faced protests, public pressure and questions over its compatibility with European animal-welfare rules.

The decision, reported by Le Télégramme, represents a significant reversal for the Breton ferry company. As recently as February 2026, animal-welfare organisations said Brittany Ferries had refused to commit to ending the transport of the young animals.

For campaigners, the latest development is being celebrated as a major victory. However, the available information suggests that operational and financial changes within Brittany Ferries may have played an important role alongside the sustained public campaign.

A controversial return to livestock transport

Brittany Ferries resumed transporting livestock from Rosslare in Ireland to Cherbourg in March 2025, having stayed away from the trade for approximately 30 years.

The company selected the freight-orientated Cotentin for the service. It said the vessel had been prepared in cooperation with the Irish authorities and offered appropriate ventilation, lighting, stability and access to fresh water. Brittany Ferries also emphasised that it would not carry animals being transported directly to slaughter.

However, many of the animals carried on the route were young, unweaned calves being exported from Ireland to farms elsewhere in Europe. Their journeys often continued by road from Cherbourg towards countries including the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, where they would be reared or fattened.

Animal-welfare organisations argued that the calves’ age and dependence on milk made the long sea crossing particularly problematic.

Why the crossing caused concern

The Rosslare-Cherbourg crossing generally lasts between 16 and 18 hours. The total journey is longer once transport from farms, assembly centres, port waiting times, loading and unloading are included.

Under European Regulation 1/2005, unweaned calves transported by road must receive a rest period of at least one hour after nine hours of travel. During that break, they must be given liquid and, when necessary, fed. They may then travel for another nine hours.

Campaigners say that milk-dependent calves cannot practically be fed while remaining inside livestock lorries during a long ferry crossing. They have therefore argued that the journeys cannot meet the regulation’s feeding requirements.

The European Food Safety Authority has also warned that cattle can experience thirst after nine hours and physiological signs of hunger after around 12 hours of transport. Its scientists recommend keeping journeys as short as possible and unloading animals into suitable facilities when they need to eat, drink and recover.

Brittany Ferries maintained that its operation complied with the requirements imposed by the relevant authorities. The dispute therefore centred not only on the conditions aboard the vessel, but on whether the complete journey could realistically satisfy the feeding and resting needs of unweaned animals.

A sustained international campaign

The decision follows more than a year of pressure from organisations including Compassion in World Farming, FOUR PAWS, Welfarm, Ethical Farming Ireland and L214.

Demonstrations were held in Cherbourg, Cork, Portsmouth and outside Brittany Ferries’ headquarters in Roscoff. Campaigners also organised open letters, meetings with company executives and an extensive email campaign.

According to FOUR PAWS, more than 200,000 people contacted Brittany Ferries’ management after the company resumed the service. Polling commissioned by animal-welfare organisations also indicated strong opposition among the public to transporting very young animals over long distances.

Talks between the company and campaign groups began in September 2025 but appeared to have broken down by the beginning of 2026. In February, the organisations announced that Brittany Ferries intended to continue transporting unweaned calves during the spring export season.

The latest decision is therefore a considerable change from the position reported only six months ago.

The sale of the Cotentin

An important part of the story is Brittany Ferries’ wider restructuring programme.

The company has officially announced that the Cotentin—the vessel used to transport livestock—will be sold as part of a series of fleet and route changes later in 2026. The Rosslare-Cherbourg freight route will continue using other ships.

Brittany Ferries says it must adapt to rising costs, including an estimated €27 million charge under the European Union’s Emissions Trading System in 2026, remaining pandemic-era debt and intense competition on some Channel routes. The company is also selling the Barfleur and reorganising several services.

This means the end of calf transport may be connected, at least partly, to the removal of the specially approved Cotentin from the fleet. At the time of writing, Brittany Ferries had not published a detailed statement establishing whether the decision represents a permanent animal-welfare policy across all its vessels or an operational consequence of the ship’s sale.

That distinction matters. It does not diminish the practical result for the calves, but it will determine whether the move represents a broader change in company policy.

The wider trade will continue

Brittany Ferries’ withdrawal does not, by itself, end the export of unweaned calves from Ireland to continental Europe. Other operators and routes may continue to provide livestock capacity.

For Irish farmers and exporters, live exports provide an alternative market for calves and help support competition in the cattle trade. Ireland’s Department of Agriculture describes live exports as an important part of the country’s livestock industry.

Animal-welfare organisations, meanwhile, want Europe to move away from transporting vulnerable young animals over long distances. They argue that animals should instead be reared closer to where they are born, with meat transported rather than live animals whenever possible.

For Brittany Ferries, the decision removes an increasingly damaging source of controversy. For campaigners, it demonstrates that sustained public pressure can influence the practices of a major transport company.

For the wider European live-export industry, however, the debate is far from over.