European Fee (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen introduced on Wednesday that the beforehand pledged ban on caged farming and different animal welfare measures, like killing day-old chicks and fur farming, could be postponed.
Two years in the past, the EC dedicated to finish using cages in animal farming in response to the ‘Finish the Cage Age‘ European Residents’ Initiative, which 1.4 million residents signed. Eight out of ten Members of the European Parliament voted in favor of ending caged farming, so a sudden postponement shocked animal welfare organizations and residents.
Throughout her State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech, von der Leyen unexpectedly prevented any point out of the brand new animal welfare legal guidelines. Current reviews counsel the Huge Agri foyer in Brussels performed a substantial function in influencing the EU’s decision-making course of.
“What occurred immediately is scandalous. The European Fee has gone again on its phrase to present animals a life price dwelling, bowing to the calls for of the Huge Agri foyer and killing the brand new animal welfare legal guidelines by delaying,” Olga Kikou, Head of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) EU, mentioned. “They’ve betrayed the belief of its residents and have turned EU democracy into an empty shell.”
“The silence on animal welfare was deafening. This could have been the second of fact. Civil society has been promised motion to overtake our Union’s outdated animal welfare guidelines time and time once more,” Joe Moran, director of the European Coverage Workplace at animal welfare group 4 Paws, mentioned. “The calls and considerations of hundreds of thousands of Europeans and the ethics of animal welfare have seemingly simply been discarded.”
Yearly, round 300 million farmed animals within the EU endure confinement in cages, pens, or stalls, a apply thought of inhumane by many animal welfare specialists. Laying hens and rabbits are confined to areas concerning the dimension of an A4 sheet of paper. Grownup feminine pigs are put in crates the place they can’t even flip round.
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