I have been advocating for animals for most of my life, first as a volunteer and later as a professional within the animal protection movement.
My career path soon made me realise that if we want to change the lives of the vast numbers of animals who suffer the most, we have to do it by influencing their legal protection at the European level.
My current role as CEO of Eurogroup for Animals, the pan-European animal protection organisation, is a natural evolution of this realisation. Whether we like the European project or not, Brussels is where legislation is being crafted.
Without EU-wide rules on animal welfare and proper enforcement, the systems exploiting animals will never change.
In spite of evolving dietary habits, driven by ethical and environmental concerns, we are still rearing, transporting and killing animals at mind-blowing rates. Even if formally recognised as sentient beings, these animals are treated like products, commodities and goods.
According to recent estimates, at least 1.5 billion farmed fish, 11 billion poultry, and 8.4 billion mammals are slaughtered annually in the EU.
Their suffering on farm, during transport, and at the time of killing have been documented for decades, not only by animal protection organisations, who go to extreme lengths to show and denounce the violations and shortcomings of EU law; the European Commission itself, in its official audits, has time and again had proof that the current animal welfare laws do not hold water and still allow for immense suffering to billions of sentient beings every year.
European Citizens’ Initiatives
Citizens are very sensitive to the plight of animals and, in this political term like never before, they clearly expressed their wish to see things improve.
The last European Citizens’ Initiatives calling for a ban on cages from animal farming, the end of animal testing, and a ban on fur farming collected more than 1 million signatures each. These unprecedented successes gave us all hope that things would finally change, and for the past few years, we thought they would.
While we were dissatisfied with the Commission’s decision not to fix the loopholes allowing for animal testing in cosmetics, we welcomed the plan to eliminate animal testing for chemicals and the longer-term proposals to reduce and phase out the use of animals in research and education.
More recently, the Commission also agreed to examine the potential feasibility of a ban on fur farming in its response to the Fur Free Europe ECI.
Among other good news is the feasibility study on the EU positive list and the two freshly published legislative proposals, one on the revision of the regulation on live animal transport and the other on the welfare of cats and dogs.
However, if we look reality in the face, the animals are losers in this political term. As a result of the “End The Cage Age” ECI, and after decades of inaction, the Commission included in its Farm to Fork Strategy a commitment to revise the entire animal welfare legislation. But then there were interminable weeks of silence after which we learnt that the plan to propose a new Regulation on kept animals had been shelved due to insurmountable opposition by the (industrial) farming lobby.
Allegedly, more dialogue and socio-economic studies are needed before enacting any change that could affect the animal farming industry.
Under the circumstances, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the proposal for a new Regulation on cats and dogs welfare saw the light: a final recognition of the important role companion animals play in our lives and an important step forward in their protection at EU level. The proposal presents very welcome provisions on identification and registration, better breeding and tackling imported animals.
The draft Regulation on live animal transport has so many unsatisfactory aspects that its effects on animal welfare will be, to be optimistic, limited. For all the rest (slaughter, new rules for unprotected species, revised rules for animal welfare on farm), much to our disbelief, the Commission resuscitated the old mantra of “more assessments”, adding the need for more dialogue to the soup.
It is disheartening, because in view of this revision process, the Commission already organised intensive and comprehensive consultations and, all the while, animal suffering continues unabated, and the evidence piles up. We see new images of unacceptable treatment of farmed animals almost every day. The situation for wild animals is not rosier, with the protection of large carnivores under threat due to the increasing conflict with extensive animal farmers.
Aggressive lobby
To me, the developments of this past year demonstrate the increasingly firm grip that the animal farming industry has on European institutions. I would not hesitate to compare this grip to a choke. Their aggressive lobbying strategy paid off, to the detriment of practical and scientific evidence, with additional attempts to discredit the EFSA, the official scientific body charged with assessing the science behind any new legislative proposal on health and food safety.
The Commission caved in, and in doing so, not only backtracked on the commitments of the Farm to Fork Strategy but also betrayed the expectations of millions of EU citizens.
The last special Eurobarometer on animal welfare speaks volumes about what citizens want for animals: better protection on farms (with the abolition of cages and mutilations) and at slaughter, more ethical responsibility, transparency and information, and equal animal welfare requirements for imported products. The response of the Commission to these rightful requests was nothing short of a shrug of the shoulders.
You’ve probably gathered by now that, in spite of all we achieved as a movement this past year and political term, which - let me be clear - is nothing short of extraordinary, I feel that we missed a great opportunity to put real change in motion.
The economic interests we are up against are massive, and the setbacks we experienced this year are all part of the journey. More time and effort will be required before we see the systemic change we are dreaming of for all animals exploited for human advantage. I am persuaded that the seeds we have sown will bear their fruits.
With the European election approaching and a new Commission in power, the political tide may change, but animal welfare will always remain at the heart of the public debate.
At the end of a very eventful and, at times, challenging year, this is my wish for everyone for this festive season and 2024: while we spend much-needed downtime with our loved ones, let’s keep our fellow creatures in our hearts and continue to hope for, and work towards, a better future for them and us all.
