In a historical landmark for farm animals, the EU commits to phase out the cage age. What next?

On 30 June 2021, the?European Commission?committed to prohibiting cages in animal farming across the EU by 2027. The decision will affect the lives of over 300 million hens, ducks, geese, mother pigs, rabbits, calves, and other farmed animals.

The Commission made the announcement at a press conference as a response to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI)?End the Cage Age, which gathered 1,4 million signatures across all EU member states in support of ending caged farming.

This is only the sixth?ECI to ever reach the minimum threshold of collecting 1 million signatures and the first one for farmed animals.

Background

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI)

The?ECI?was created in April 2012 as a tool to enable participatory democracy at the EU level. It was launched to be an innovative means for citizens to set the agenda in a range of policy areas.

According to the requirements defined in Article 11(4) of the?Treaty on European Union, a valid ECI needs to gather at least 1 million citizens from at least seven EU member states to invite the Commission to propose legal action within the scope of its powers.

So far, the Commission has received?over 100 requests to launch an ECI, of which 81 fulfilled the competence prerequisites to be registered and only six have reached a million signatures.

The success behind the End the Cage Age ECI

Among the reasons behind the success of the End of the Cage Age initiative was the overwhelming joining of forces of over?170 organisations?in the animal advocacy space, among which were the?Humane Society International,?PETA, and playing a very prominent role,?Compassion in World Farming.

The initiative was launched in September 2018 and just a year later it had already collected more than the minimum requirement of a million signatures.

The non-profits engaged in the initiative played an indispensable role in raising public awareness about the problems with caged farming and in mobilizing the population through timely online campaigns. The use of social media channels and email marketing tools have also proved to have outstanding potential in reaching broader audiences in a timely fashion.

After the signatures

The petition was submitted in October 2020 after the signatures have been validated. The following step was to get the necessary support from the?Parliament, which was achieved with staggering surprise after a plenary debate on 10 June 2021?(558 votes in favour, 37 against, and 85 abstentions).

20 days later, the?Commission?gave the final decision on the ECI, supporting the pledge to put forward a legislative proposal prohibiting the use of cages for farmed animals in the near future.

Why ending the use of cages?

The End of the Cage Age initiative reflects an increasing public demand for more ethical and sustainable food systems.

Over 300 million animals are currently kept in cages in the EU, which includes foxes kept in fur farms in Denmark, force-fed ducks and geese kept for foie gras production in France, besides rabbits and laying hens confined to spaces about the size of an A4 sheet of paper all across the EU territory, just to give a few examples.

Each of these practices is surrounded by its own ethical and welfare concerns but they all have in common the suffering associated with restricting sentient beings’ freedom to extremely confined spaces.

The confinement of animals is associated with a variety of welfare problems, such as bone maintenance inhibition, stereotypy (repetitive behaviours caused by boredom and desire to escape captivity), self-mutilation, and cannibalism (1).

Scientific evidence?on the suffering of animals in caged farming systems is overwhelming. The End of the Cage Age initiative argued that cages promote unnecessary suffering, as uncaged systems are viable in the EU.

What Next?

The Commission committed to presenting a legislative proposal by 2023 to phase out and ultimately prohibit the use of cages for all farm animals mentioned in the initiative, which includes hens, sows, calves, rabbits, pullets, quail, ducks, geese, and many others.

The proposal will be part of the animal welfare revision under the ongoing?Farm to Fork Strategy.

Next steps include seeking supporting measures in key related policy areas, such as trade and research, to facilitate an economically viable transition to cage-free farming.

In addition, a public consultation will be carried out by early 2022 and an impact assessment to be completed?by the end of 2022?will provide a full understanding of the socio-economic and environmental implications of the measures to be taken and the benefits to animal welfare.

To help smoothen the transition, the Commission declared that financial resources will be made available to support farmers and that?Common Agricultural Policy?incentives will be implemented to stimulate practices that upgrade existing facilities to more animal-friendly systems.

Conclusions

During the press conference, Commissioner Stella Kyriakides added:

“And it is important that today, we can say we have listened to you and we will continue to listen, we have heard you and we will continue to hear and will deliver upon your aspirations, which are shared aspirations. Animal welfare is for us a political priority and we will continue to show our commitment to this.”

The support of the Parliament and the Commission represented the greatest stand ever taken on behalf of farm animals.

The EU, which already has one the of most progressive legislative animal welfare systems in the world, seems to be committed to taking the lead towards more ethical and sustainable food systems.

All we can hope is for this step to be followed by other governments.

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References

Ludwiczak, A., — Stanisz, M., ‘The Reproductive Success of Farmed American Mink (Neovison Vison) — A Review’ (2019).?Annals of Animal Science, 19(2), 273–289.

Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Animal Health and Welfare on a request from the Commission on the risks associated with tail biting in pigs and possible means to reduce the need for tail docking considering the different housing and husbandry systems. The EFSA Journal, 2007.

Baxter, ‘The welfare problems of laying hens in battery cages’ (1994),?The Veterinary Record, 134(24), 614–619.

Photo credits

Featured photo by?Artem Beliaikin?on?Unsplash