The report summarises some of the main welfare issues that chickens, fish, pigs, cows, and rabbits experience in intensive farms. As individuals with their own desires, personalities and feelings, they deserve respect, and to stop being treated as just part of an industrial process.
EUROGROUP FOR ANIMALS: The European Union recognises farmed animals as sentient beings. This means it recognises they are individuals with intrinsic value, needs and rights. It also means the least we can do is offer them a decent life. However, most farmed animals across the EU live in detrimental and depressing conditions, where painful and frightening experiences are common and they have no opportunities to socialise with others on their terms, let alone explore a stimulating environment or learn from and interact with the world around them. What’s more – when they come to the end of their lives – these animals are often killed in ways that are simply inhumane, causing them to die in unnecessary anguish. The EU’s farmed animals deserve better than this.
As individuals with their own desires, personalities and feelings, they deserve respect, and to stop being treated as just part of an industrial process. This report summarises some of the main welfare issues that broiler chickens, fish, pigs, dairy cows, and rabbits experience in intensive farms. These are not the only welfare concerns afflicting these animals, but they highlight the main ways in which the current European legislation is failing them. These sentient beings deserve to be protected by legislation that has their interests in mind.
Farmed animals want and need to live in environments where they can be healthy and express their instinctive and natural behaviours, as well as have access to nutritious food and clean water. They do not want to be in pain or feel scared. In addition, as our footage shows, the current legislation is inadequately enforced, and there are numerous examples of breaches that directly impact the welfare of farmed animals. Whether it’s through the cruel handling of a broiler chicken before slaughter or by chaining the back legs of dairy cows, the EU’s farmed animals are being callously treated by those
who are meant to care for them.
The EU’s legislation is inadequate and out of date. Too many animals are falling between the gaps, without any species-specific legislation to protect them. In addition, animal welfare science has continued to show how many of the current housing systems for farmed animals cannot meet their needs, and that practices and approaches must change. Farmed animals are being bred to endure lives full of pain, from being kept in cages to being pushed beyond their physical limits, after which they are slaughtered in ways that cause even more suffering. The current animal welfare legislation needs drastic changes. It must be strong, precise, and enforced to stop the needless suffering of billions of farmed animals across the EU. This is what European citizens want, and what the animals deserve. SOURCE…
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