A new report reveals that animal welfare issues are treated “very differently” by each of the EU’s 27 Member States.

The authors, Eurogroup for Animals, say it shows that the EU “must update and modernise the animal welfare legislation as soon as possible.”

This, it says, it needed to “ensure all animals uniformly receive the highest possible standards for their care, no matter where they are based in Europe.”

At the moment, the quality of an animal’s life in the EU depends largely on which country they live in, argues the report.

This, says the group, is because the EU’s 27 Member States approach animal welfare issues in their own way.

“With only vague and outdated EU animal welfare laws to guide them, each country is left to interpret or set the rules as they see fit, leading to a highly fragmented landscape where few animals receive sufficient care,” states the report.

It key findings include:

• Only 6 Member States explicitly include animal welfare in their constitutions;
• 5 Member States still allow force-feeding for foie gras production;
• 16 Member States have no legislation for the protection of farmed fish;
• 25 Member States are, it is alleged,  actively in breach of a Directive that lays down the minimum standards for pigs kept for farming (mostly by still subjecting piglets to painful mutilations such as tail docking).

The report says that while 16 Member States have a full ban on fur farming or no operational fur farms, 11 “still need to take action” answering to the calls of the EU citizens who voted for a ban on the industry in the Fur Free Europe ECI.

One of the study’s main conclusions highlights the “pressing need” for an EU-wide ban on cage farming.

Across Europe, the percentage of farm animals kept behind bars varies widely, with 99% kept in cages in Malta, 87% in Spain, 81% in Portugal, and on the other end of the scale, just 3% in Austria and 2% in Luxembourg.

Even in the top-performing countries that are using cages far less, no Member State can claim to be completely cage-free, adds the group.

“Until the EU adheres to the wishes of the 1.4 million EU citizens who signed the End the Cage Age ECI and legislates on an EU-wide cage ban, countless animals will continue to live in confinement.”

The report also asserts that while some countries are leading the way when it comes to prioritising animal welfare, others are lagging behind. 

Modernising the EU’s laws for animal welfare, factoring in everything from cage farming and live animal transport to species-specific welfare needs, “would ensure the lives of millions of sentient beings are equally protected no matter where they are based.”

Harmonised standards would also support farmers and other operators in achieving better welfare for animals in their contexts, suggests the report.

At the moment, over 430 laws, regulations and constitutional provisions govern animal protection across Europe, and the degree to which these affect individual Member States differs greatly. In some countries, only a handful of legislative acts govern all animal welfare issues, while in others, there are over 140 pieces of legislation to which to refer.

“This,” says the report, “has created a very uneven playing field that only EU-wide animal welfare laws can balance. 

Commenting, Marta Klimczak, Farm Animals Project Officer, Eurogroup for Animals, told this website, “The patchwork of animal welfare laws across the EU is not just a bureaucratic issue – it has real consequences for millions of sentient beings,” it says.

“While some countries lead with strong protections, others lag far behind, leaving animals exposed to outdated and insufficient standards. The EU must revise animal welfare legislation without further delay, ensuring that no animal’s wellbeing is determined by their geographical location.”