Animal welfare
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Council of Europe Conventions and Recommendations
The European Convention for the protection of animals kept for farming purposes (No. 087) dated 10 September 1978 was ratified by all EU Member States and transposed into their national legislation. This Convention lays down the general provisions on animal protection and is a binding guideline. Next to this general framework, a Recommendation concerning fur animals was adopted by the Standing Committee on 22 June 1999 and provides specific welfare guidelines for fur-farmed species. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjörn Jagland, informed its members during the Annual Meeting of 26-30 April 2010 that a reform was initiated to refocus the activities of the Council of Europe on its core business, being the defence of Human Rights. The results of this reform should be announced in the next months. 2010 will be a year of transition for all non-core activities.
EFBA Position:
EFBA supports the Council of Europe Recommendation on fur animals and helps Member States to integrate it into their national legislation. This is the best guarantee to secure animal-welfare conditions on the farm and to ensure that national inspection controls are performed on a regular basis. The Recommendation has been included in the EFBA Code of Practice, applicable to all EFBA members.
EU Animal Welfare
Today, there is no Community Law on Animal Welfare detailing specific provisions per animal species. Council Directive 98/58 (EC) of 20 July 1998 lays down the minimum standards for the protection of animals bred or kept for farming purposes. Fur-farmed animals are covered by the scope of this Directive under article 2 §1.
The European Action Plan on Animal Welfare 2006-2010 was adopted on 23 January 2006. The main objective was to define Community initiatives which would contribute to the upgrading of existing minimum animal-welfare standards. MEP Marit Paulsen (SW-ALDE) is currently carrying out an evaluation and assessment of this Action Plan for the European Parliament and a new plan will be debated in the first half of 2010. The report was voted in the EP plenary session on 5 May 2010. The key elements of her recommendation are: i) A general European animal welfare law; ii) A European network of reference centres for animal welfare; iii) Better enforcement of existing legislation; and iv) Funding of research and education.
EFBA Position:
EFBA welcomes and supports the review of the European Action Plan on Animal Welfare 2006-2010. EFBA has proactively contributed to the public consultation launched by the Commission on this matter under the supervision of GSK-ADAS Consultants. The consultation is open till 31 July 2010. Subsequently, a consolidation of all the stakeholders responses will be undertaken and the outcomes are expected by year-end.
Welfare at Slaughter
EU legislation on welfare at slaughter aims to minimise pain and suffering of animals through the use of properly-approved stunning and killing methods, based on robust scientific knowledge and practical experience. Council Directive 93/119 has been revised since 2006. On 22 June 2009, the European Council adopted a political agreement on a new Regulation for the protection of animals at the time of killing that replaces the present Directive and will enter into force on 1 January 2013. Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 was published in the Official Journal on 18 November 2009.
EFBA Position:
EFBA welcomes this Commission review of slaughter practices and has been involved in the stakeholder consultation process. Stricter operating procedures and training of operators will reinforce the welfare of fur-farmed animals at the time of stunning and killing. EFBA will now start working on the implementing measures for this Regulation. EFBA has signed a three-year collaboration project with MTT Agrifood Research Centre (Finland) together with the Finnish Government. The objective of this scientific research is to detail the standard operating procedures for mink euthanasia with gas methods.
Transportation
The Commission is currently reviewing the Regulation on the protection of animals during transport (EC) No. 1/2005 of 22 December 2004. A new proposal dated 16 March 2009, intended to reduce travelling time to nine hours and reinforce navigation systems, has been twice submitted to the Commission inter-service consultation procedure. A number of concerns remain unresolved at this stage. Meanwhile, the Commission continues to concentrate on enforcement activities of current transport Regulations. The Commission is currently working on a new report which should be made available in autumn 2011.
EFBA Position:
Transport is very limited for fur-farmed animals as slaughter takes place on the farm itself. It only impacts the transport of livestock that is only a small part of the activity in our sector. EFBA participated in the stakeholder-consultation process and is following up developments on this issue very closely in 2010.
Animal-Welfare Standards
The EU Welfare Quality® project (2004-2009), funded by the European Commission, involved integration of animal welfare in the food-quality chain. The project aimed for the accommodation of societal concerns and market demands through the development of reliable on-farm welfare-assessment protocols, product-information systems and practical species-specific strategies to improve animal welfare. Three species were covered: cattle beef and dairy; pigs; and poultry-broiler chickens and laying hens. Some 44 institutes and universities with specialist expertise from 13 European and 4 Latin American countries participated in this integrated research project (www.welfarequality.net).
EFBA Position:
The WQ® protocols are species specific and can be further developed provided that sufficient scientific knowledge on the biology and welfare of a species is available. Welfare of the most important fur-farmed species – mink, fox and Finnraccoon – has been scientifically studied over the last 25 years. On 1 September 2009, in collaboration with seven European research institutes and a number of experts from WQ®, EFBA initiated the ‘WelFur’ welfare-quality-like project on fur-farmed species. The main outcome will be welfare-assessment protocols for the mink, fox and Finnraccoon by 31 December 2010. Implementation on the farm will start in 2011. EFBA recently launched a sub-website covering the WelFur project. The project plan and intermediate outcomes will be accessible to all parties interested to follow-up the progress achieved so far.
Animal-Welfare Labelling
On 28 October 2009, the Commission adopted a report with suggested options for EU animal-welfare labelling: the establishment of requirements for the voluntary use of animal-welfare claims or a voluntary Community Animal Welfare label – subject to certain criteria and considered the most feasible at this stage – or the drafting of guidelines for animal-welfare labelling and quality schemes. The report also developed the idea of creating a European Network of Reference Centres (ENRC) for the protection and welfare of animals. This network would provide technical support for the development and implementation of animal-welfare policies, including certification and labelling. As a study carried out for the report showed a lack of animal-welfare information on food products, these options would enable consumers to identify and select welfare-friendly products and give producers an incentive to improve animal welfare. The report will be debated in Council and Parliament in the next few months. The report was discussed under the Spanish Presidency. A special report from the EESC was issued on 18 May 2010. There is today no political orientation on the subject and this will be further investigated under the new Animal Welfare Action Plan.
EFBA Position:
EFBA welcomes the Commission initiative on animal-welfare labelling and has officially communicated its position with regards to the options. EFBA strongly supports the options of harmonised EU requirements for the mandatory or voluntary use of claims in relation to animal welfare based on solid scientific evidence as well as the creation of the ENRC to provide technical assistance on animal-welfare issues.