The European Parliament has agreed on the bloc’s first set of rules governing animal welfare that will cut out harmful breeding and ownership practices.
The vote came in with 558 in favor, 35 against, and with 52 abstentions. It has already been green lit by the European Council, and will enter into effect for breeders and organizations that sell or adopt animals after the next 4 years.
The law will ban all breeding practices that result in physical deformation for aesthetic appeal, including for “exaggerated traits.” As for which breeds that might involve, the law did not make any stipulations.
It states that “breeding strategies motivated by marketing objectives can result in certain types of dogs and cats developing ‘excessive conformational traits.'”
“Since such excessive conformational traits can lead to significant health problems for the dogs and cats concerned, breeders should exclude them from breeding programs.”
Whether that means the pug or the bulldog, or frankly most domesticated purebred cat breeds for that matter, are now illegal to breed, may very well be something for the courts to determine over the next decade.
Additionally as regards breeding, any inbreeding practice either of first order relatives or those once removed, as well as hybridization with non-domestic animals, will be prohibited.
Beyond breeding, substantial text was given in the law to laying out all the documented situations through which cats and dogs enter the European Union market through channels where animal welfare is not the priority, and where future exchanges will be regulated through welfare requirements.
This includes coming from ex-Union countries that have no established animal welfare rules, from unscrupulous breeders posing as private owners simply putting their animals out for adoption, or very scrupulous breeders who take in animals from breeders, shelters, or persons, where animal welfare standards were not observed.
Regarding animal welfare and exactly what that term means, the Union adopted the “five domains” concept of nutrition, physical environment, health, behavioral interactions, and mental state when determining welfare conditions. The objective is not only the elimination of detrimental conditions, but the guarantee of enriching conditions.
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The law also prohibits tethering a dog or a cat to an object, except when necessary for medical treatment, and the use of prong and choke collars without built-in safety mechanisms.
It also includes common-sense provisions, such releasing citizens from responsibility for dogs and cats that live “symbiotically” on farms or in other rural areas and which generate value through pest control or other means but which do not live domestically, as well as in cases of scientific research for the purposes of testing veterinary medicine.
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US law regarding these practices vary wildly, but will generally conform or at least acknowledge the USDA Animal Welfare Act which includes requirements for licensing based on the number of breeding females or for selling dogs “sight unseen.”
22 states actually have laws on the books to prevent legislation being created that target individual dog breeds for any purpose, though this is generally advocated by those seeking to protect breeds considered “dangerous” from legal discrimination, and who may dispute the nature of any dog as dangerous when it enjoys a proper upbringing and domestic life.
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