The European Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the EU’s first comprehensive legislation to protect cats and dogs, signalling a transformative shift in animal welfare standards across member states, according to Euractiv.
The proposal, adopted with 457 votes in favour against 17 rejections and 86 abstentions, aims to harmonise fragmented national regulations and dismantle a €1.3 billion illegal trade fuelled by cruel practices such as confinement in cramped cages, denial of food, and unregulated breeding without vaccinations.
Czech rapporteur Veronika Vrecionová (ECR) declared the result demonstrated a Parliament “united (…) to protect the welfare of dogs and cats.”
Central to the legislation is a mandatory EU-wide microchipping and registration system designed to eradicate illicit trafficking. Manuela Ripa (Germany, EPP) emphasised:
A comprehensive requirement for microchipping and registering dogs and cats will put a stop to unscrupulous traders.
The law forms part of a broader animal welfare overhaul, alongside pending reforms to livestock transport regulations. Despite broad support, the legislation includes contentious exemptions that have drawn criticism from animal rights advocates.
Hunting dogs remain excluded from bans on mutilations like ear and tail docking and face looser euthanasia protocols. Additional compromises involve scrapping temperature requirements for breeding facilities, permitting breeding from the second heat cycle rather than an initially proposed 18-month minimum, and omitting a “positive list” of permitted breeds.
Nevertheless, campaigners celebrated the vote as a watershed moment. Joe Moran, director of Four Paws, hailed the outcome as “the culmination, if not perfection, of an excellent law that will come out of the coming trilogues.”
The law now advances to interinstitutional negotiations, with the Council having finalised its position last year. Trilogue discussions between the Parliament, Commission, and Council will commence imminently to reconcile the text before formal adoption
