What did we achieve for animals in 2021?

31 December 2021

2021 was a BIG year for animal protection, seeing significant progress made in Europe and further afield.

To celebrate the year coming to a close, we are looking back on the top moments for animals in the past 12 months.

Together, we are advancing the conversation on animal protection in Europe and creating a better world for all – pet, farm, wild and animals used in science.

We saw many breakthroughs, let’s look back to some of the top moments:

• The European Commission promised to phase out caged farming for animals following the successful ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens Initiative.
• The No Animal Left Behind campaign closed with almost 200,000 supporters standing up for a better future for all farm animals in Europe.
• The European Parliament voted in favour of a comprehensive plan to phase-out experiments on animals.
• The UK Government introduced the Animal Welfare Bill to parliament, which bans the  export of live animals for fattening or slaughter, from or through Great Britain AND which recognises the sentience of decapods and cephalopods.
• Major steps have been taken to improve animal welfare in France.

1 million citizens asked the European Commission to ban the use of wild animals in circuses.

Ritual slaughter was banned in Greece.

The European Parliament adopted an ambitious report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

During a Council meeting in June 2021, twelve Member States called on the European Commission to investigate the possibility for an EU ban on fur farming based on animal welfare, public health and ethical considerations.

The European Commission took a major leap towards the better protection of fish welfare with the publication of the Strategic Guidelines on Sustainable and Competitive Aquaculture and concrete objectives in the legislative review Inception Impact Assessment.

Video surveillance cameras in Spanish slaughterhouses become mandatory

We’d like to thank everyone who visited our website, social media channels, signed our petitions and helped to support this progress. We’d also like to thank our colleagues in Brussels and around Europe, and our network of member organisations, for all their hard work to achieve this momentum for animals.

Stay tuned to see what we can achieve in 2022!

This is from the EU Eurogroup;

Regards Mark