EU’s outdated animal welfare legislation is currently in the process of a comprehensive revision which will result in a legislative proposal from the European Commission in the second half of this year. It is not certain that all expectations from animal welfare organisations will be met.
The shortcomings in current legislation and the urgent needs to improve and enforce it were discussed at a day-long conference on Tuesday in Brussels arranged by Compassion in World Farming, a global NGO dedicated to the double goal of ending factory farming and achieving sustainable food production.
The NGO launched the European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age” on prohibiting the use of cages for farmed animals. The initiative was supported by 1.4 million citizens across all member states and resulted in a Commission decision in 2021 to put forward a legislative proposal by 2023 to prohibit the use of cages, as part of the revision of animal welfare legislation under the Farm to Fork Strategy.
Cattle transport for slaughter at the Bulgarian - Turkish border. Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media.
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said in 2021 that “Animals are sentient beings and we have a moral, societal responsibility to ensure that on-farm conditions for animals reflect this."
She described the Commission’s response to the Citizens’ initiative as a key step towards an ambitious revision of the animal welfare legislation in 2023 and a priority since the beginning of her mandate. “I am determined to ensure that the EU remains at the forefront of animal welfare on the global stage and that we deliver on societal expectations.”
At her keynote speech at this week’s conference, she repeated her commitment to improving animal welfare legislation and mentioned that she had asked for updated scientific opinions from the EU agency for food safety (EFSA) aiming at “substantial changes” that also will be easier to enforce on the ground.
Listing the arguments for improving animal welfare legislation, she said that, “Better animal welfare improves animal health and food quality, reduces the need for medication and can help biodiversity. And this is why improving animal welfare is so very important to sustainable food production.”
But science is not the only factor in the picture, she added, referring to consumers’ need of informed decisions and farmers’ interests. A relatively new unit in her Directorate General is working hard on legislation that also has to be pragmatic in response to social and economic realities. “We’ll strive for ambition but will also strive for balance.”
What this means in practice was difficult to gauge from the discussion. Andrea Gavinelli, head of her unit dealing with the legislation, reminded that the EU has been a driving force for higher animal welfare standards thanks to the European Parliament. The Commission started to pay attention to the issue only in recent years. Without the European Citizens’ Initiative, it would perhaps not have happened.
Densely housed young hens look out through the wires of the cage they live in at a farm in the Czech Republic, credit: Lukas Vincour/Zvirata Nejime/We Animals Media
He underlined that the Commission will face an “incredible” number of constraints in its interservice consultation before presenting the proposal. Replying to a question from MEP Anja Hazekamp from the Parliament’s Intergroup on the welfare and conservation of animals, he said that a “balance” will have to be struck in the Commission’s impact assessment of the proposal but did not specify how.
The objective of the impact assessment is to assess the economic, social and environmental impact of the envisaged changes to the EU animal welfare legislation. A Commission source told The Brussels Times that not much can be disclosed during the on-going revision of the legislation.
“The Commission gives great importance to animal welfare and the EU’s animal welfare standards are now among the highest in the world.” The Commission committed in its Farm to Fork Strategy to revise the EU’s animal welfare legislation in 2023.
The revision includes a number of directives and regulations: the directive on the protection of animals kept for farming purposes, the directives on minimum standards for the protection of laying hens, broilers, pigs and calves, and the regulations on the protection of animals during transport and at the time of killing.
Organic egg farm in Italy, credit: Stefano Balacchi/Essere Animali/We Animals Media
An idea of what could be done to improve the conditions of farmed animals was given by animal welfare expert Kristina Nordéus from the Swedish representation to the EU. Sweden, which currently holds the EU Presidency, reformed its animal welfare legislation already before it joined the EU in 1995. Her advice to other EU countries is to allow enough time for the reform process.
Asked by The Brussels Times what would be the easiest problems to solve by the revised EU legislation, she replied that the conditions and challenges differ by sector and member state. “What measures are the easiest to implement can therefore vary by country.”
Suffering in slaughterhouses
The reform process in Sweden seems to have halted outside the slaughterhouses. The slaughter of pigs after they have been stunned by CO2 is as painful as in other countries judging by Lina Gustafsson, a Swedish veterinarian who resigned after having disclosed what happens inside a major pig slaughterhouse.
Blood drains to the floor from the bodies of four recently killed pigs at a slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic, Credit: Lukas Vincour/Zvirata Nejime/We Animals Media
Philip Lymbery, global CEO of Compassion in World Farming, totally dismissed gas stunning of pigs. Contrary to the common belief that it fails to stun pigs effectively only in a minority of cases because of unskilled workers, he told The Brussels Times that it takes normally too long and cannot be considered as stunning at all if the idea is to make the animal unconscious in a few seconds.
“As soon as the pigs start feeling the concentration of the gas rising, they don't fall asleep, they don't peacefully drift away, or simply don't notice it. They desperately fight for air, tilt their heads, move their legs trying to find some breathable air. The worst is that some of them resist and resist, holding to their lives as long as they can for over a minute sometimes, enduring excruciating pain.”
The grim reality of industrial animal farming can be found in a report published ahead of the conference by animal welfare NGO Eurogroup for Animals. The report deals with broiler chickens, pigs, dairy cows, farmed rabbits and farmed fish, the latter largely neglected in current legislation. Among others the report discloses the pain chicken and pigs are suffering despite stunning when slaughtered.
Live chickens hanging upside down as they are shackled to a procession line in a slaughterhouse in Greece: Milos Bicanski/We Animals Media
“The new hard-hitting evidence shows once again that the EU is responsible for the biggest animal welfare crisis ever: industrial animal farming,” commented Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals. “Animals have been decimated into objects as cogs in a big machine whereas the EU legislation is expected to meet their natural needs.”
“This year the European Commission has the once in a lifetime opportunity to turn the page,” she added.
Participants in the conference were also exposed to “Seeing animals through the lense”, a photo exhibition by We Animals Media, a network of photographers. “Who should look at disturbing images of suffering? Those who can help,” said Jo-Anne McArthur, founder of the organisation and an award-winning photojournalist, quoting American writer Susan Sontag (‘Regarding the Pain of Others’).
About 10 billion farmed animals are slaughtered in the EU every year. “Animals are my clients. We don’t connect with numbers; we connect with individual animals. These searing images of rabbits, geese, chickens, pigs and cows - in factory farms and during transport and slaughter – serve as proof of the emergency confronting animals in the EU and around the world.”
The images also reminded the viewers about recent history when human beings were treated as animals or even worse.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
