Considered a byproduct of the egg industry, over 35 million male chicks are killed every year in Italy. In 2021, Italy approved a law to ban male chick culling by the end of 2026. But slow progress is being made on making the ban a reality.
In order to ensure the ban can be enacted by 2026, the government must support the transition of companies towards the adoption of more animal-friendly practices, and correctly inform consumers.
However, the adoption of the decrees is still incomplete. The deadline for issuing the pending measures was set for 7 April 2024, but failure to implement the legislation risks continuing to encourage the slaughter of millions of chicks every year.
In the egg industry, male chicks are shredded alive or suffocated within the first 24 hours of birth, and without the use of stunning techniques.
Viable alternatives already exist, such as in-ovo sexing technologies that detect male eggs before they hatch. In France, where a ban on chick culling has been agreed in principle but not yet implemented, the additional cost to consumers is estimated at only one cent per box of six eggs.
Animal Equality, CIWF Italia, Essere Animali, Animal Law Italia and LAV wrote to the Ministries of Health and Agriculture asking them to adopt the decrees necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the ban.
They called for the adoption the envisaged decrees, in particular:
The labelling of eggs treated with in-ovo sexing technologies;
The promotion and development of technologies for in-ovo sexing;
The definition of criteria for managing chicks born by mistake within the egg industry.
Over 110,000 Italian citizens supported a petition by Animal Equality calling for the ban. The associations stressed that society is ready to take this historic step for animal welfare, and politicians must do their part so as not to betray citizens’ trust.
The new Commission, announced today, will include a Commissioner dedicated to Animal Welfare, in a move very positively welcomed by animal protection NGOs. This will allow for better prioritisation of the topic, in line with the demands of EU citizens.
Animal welfare will be included in the title of the new Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, President Ursula von der Leyen announced today as she revealed the structure and nominees of the new College.
Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi has been nominated to take this role, subject to his approval in the EP hearing in the next weeks.
It is welcome to see that the competence of Animal Welfare remains under DG SANTE, ensuring a One Health approach that acknowledges the interlink between animal welfare, public health and the environment.
The ask for a Commissioner dedicated to Animal Welfare aligns with the collective voice of 310,000 citizens and over 200 MEPs in the 2019-24 term of the Parliament, and already over 100 MEPs in the new one, in a years-long EU for Animals campaign, led by Eurogroup for Animals’ member GAIA. The new Commissioner will be crucial in ensuring the delivery of the promised revision of the outdated EU animal welfare legislation.
The work of the new Commissioner responsible for Animal Welfare will also greatly interlink with that of other Commissioners – including that of nominee for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, who is expected to “bring to life the report and recommendations of Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture”. The report explicitly recommends a revision of animal welfare legislation by 2026 as well as a transition to cage-free systems.
It will also include working closely with the Commissioners responsible for Fisheries, Trade and Environment, among others, to ensure ambitious EU legislation that ensures high animal welfare standards in all relevant areas.
It is great to see that finally, the new Commission is listening to the demands of citizens, who have continuously asked for better EU laws to protect animal welfare. The inclusion of Animal Welfare in the title will ensure that this topic remains a priority in all relevant discussions and we expect the revision of the animal welfare legislation to be the first file to be dealt with.
“Fact-finding” visits to fur farms in Poland are being conducted this week by auditors of the European Commission, as part of the process in which an EU-wide ban on such farms is being considered.
This visit by the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety comes as a result of the European Citizens’ Initiative Fur Free Europe, in which 1.5 million European citizens called for a ban on fur farms and the sale of farmed fur products in the EU.
On fur farms, animals such as mink, foxes, chinchillas and racoon dogs are kept in tiny cages, hindered from displaying natural behaviour and killed solely for an unnecessary fashion product: fur.
During the visit, the auditors will be primarily focusing on the public health and zoonotic disease risks posed by such farms, after several fur farms in Europe were affected by Covid-19 and avian influenza in recent years, including Poland. Besides evaluating the implementation of the One Health mechanism on Polish fur farms, the audits may also include an evaluation of the welfare of farmed animals.
Although the auditors’ visits from the European Commission are announced, I am confident that the evaluation of fur farms in Poland will be negative. The welfare of foxes and minks is shockingly poor and will not go unnoticed by the visitors. As for public health risks, this issue has been ignored by the fur industry and disregarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, so we also expect a negative assessment from the auditors.
Paweł Rawicki, President, Otwarte Klatki
Apart from the undeniable animal welfare issues inherent to fur farms, the fact-finding visits conducted by the European Commission to fur farms in certain Member States are highly relevant. The connection between fur farming and the spread of zoonotic diseases must not be overlooked, especially in the context of preventing future pandemics. Given the non-essential nature of fur products, and in line with the One Health approach — essential for anticipating, preventing, detecting, and controlling diseases that transmit between animals and humans — it is unlikely that proportionate justifications can be found to continue legitimising this industry in the EU.
Bethania Malmberg, Programme Officer Fur Animals, Eurogroup for Animals
With over 300 farms keeping 3.4 million animals, Poland is currently the largest fur producer in the EU. Earlier this year, a bill was presented by a Polish MP for a national ban, yet this is still set to be deliberated in Parliament.
Feedback from a public consultation on amendments to the live animal transport regulation has just been published. The results reveal that citizens are very concerned about how animals are treated in this sector.
Read the summary results of the public consultation here.
In 2023, the European Commission announced it would update the Transport Regulation as part of its full revision to the animal welfare legislation. Soon after, it published its initial proposal for the update, which it invited European citizens to feed back on through a public consultation.
The response level was very high. The public consultation, which was open for a period of over four months (between 8 December 2023 and 12 April 2024) gathered over 5,000 contributions for analysis.
Within this number, a lot of the key input came from Spain, Germany, France and Italy, highlighting significant public interest for this topic in these Member States.
The results showed citizens overwhelmingly support stricter regulations to protect animal welfare in this industry, including by:
Banning certain types of transport and exports. Including banning long-distance and sea transport, and the export of live animals to third countries;
Improving transport conditions. Calling for adequate space, ventilation, food and water, as well as for reduced transport times;
Protecting vulnerable animals. Calling to ban the transport of unweaned and vulnerable animals, along with enforcing strict temperature controls;
Supporting stricter weather protection. Incorporating recommendations for stricter measures to safeguard animals from extreme weather;
Condemning harmful methods. Opposing the use of electric prods;
Addressing transition periods. Issues were raised about the length of transition periods to implement new welfare rules;
Helping poultry and rabbits. With suggestions to further limit transport times for these animals, based on their specific needs and natures;
Possibly transitioning to a different type of trade entirely. There is widespread support for shifting to the transport of meat and carcasses instead of live animals, which is viewed as a more humane alternative that could significantly reduce suffering.
Stakeholders from various fields, including agriculture, public authorities, and NGOs, also provided feedback on different areas of the proposal, such as its current scope and what it says about journey times and temperature controls. These results were mixed, with some differences of opinion arising between the groups. For instance, industry voices and farmers raised concerns about limiting journey times during transport, whereas NGOs posited that journey times should be reduced significantly, for the wellbeing of the animals subjected to them.
The transport proposal needs some changes to truly work for animal welfare
As the responses to the public consultation show, the current transport proposal should be further revised. Our white paper details several measures that can be used by policy-makers to draft the strongest policies possible in this area: addressing both the needs of the animals in this sector, as well as the concerns of European citizens who have voiced support for protecting their welfare.
It’s great to see that, yet again, the public is so engaged in the topic of live animal transport, and that European citizens in particular want to see more being done for animal welfare. This sector is very complex and causes suffering for millions of animals each year, both in the EU and beyond. The current transport proposal needs to be much stronger if it is really going to have an impact on the wellbeing of animals, and a lot of the conflicts of opinion expressed within the consultation could be addressed to a wider transition to a ‘meat and carcasses’ trade, in which no live animals would have to be subjected to these long and difficult journeys anymore.
Inês Grenho Ajuda, Farm Animals Programme Leader, Eurogroup for Animals
Aperson in Missouri has become the first American to be diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu without coming into contact with animals, in a potentially worrying development.
They are the 14th person to become infected in the US since the strain hit livestock earlier this year – but the first not to have been directly exposed to an infected bird or cow.
It is still unclear how the Missourian was infected, but experts have been warning for months against drinking raw milk because of fears the virus can spread to people via this route.
Here we go again – World, get prepared for another lockdown. The Utterly Cruel Chinese Are At It Yet Again.
Researchers scoured for viruses in the lungs, intestines and other tissues of 461 individual fur animals that were found dead due to disease across China. They identified 125 virus species, including 36 that were novel and 39 at potentially-high risk of crossing the species barrier, including spilling over to infect humans.
Raccoon dogs and mink, valued for their soft pelts, carried the highest number of potentially dangerous viruses, according to the research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
China dominates the trade, accounting for over 80% of global fur production, with pelts from around 27 million animals turned into high-end garments in 2021.
Notably, 19 potentially high-risk viruses were detected in the northeastern province of Shandong, which contains many fur animal farms. The findings revealed potential virus transmission between farmed animals and wild animals, and from humans to farmed animals, indicating that fur farming represents an important transmission hub for viruses that risk causing disease in people.
Dozens of viruses – some of which have the potential to spill over into humans – have been detected mixing in animals at fur farms in China, sparking news fears of a fresh pandemic outbreak, researchers have said.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists have been warning that farming mammals such as minks for their fur could make it easier for new viruses to cross over from the wild and spark fresh outbreaks.
Virologist Edward Holmes, who has led research into Covid-19, told AFP he felt that the global fur farming industry ‘is one most likely ways by which a new pandemic will start’.
Dozens of viruses – some of which have the potential to spill over into humans – have been detected mixing at fur farms in China. Pictured: foxes and mink on a fur farm in China
In Finland, one of Europe’s major fur producing countries, farms are downsizing and closing at a rapid rate. Over the last 5 years, mink production has declined by 50%, whilst fox farming has collapsed even more sharply at 68%.
In 2023, there was only one mink farm producing more than 10,000 pelts, compared to 11 such farms the previous year. There were six fox farms producing more than 10,000 pelts, compared to 8 in 2022, and 20 in 2019. Most mink are raised on farms producing fewer than 500 pelts annually, indicating that mink farming is a side business. Foxes, on the other hand, are mostly raised on farms with 3,000–10,000 animals.
22% fewer foxes and 4% fewer mink were born on fur farms. Over the last 5 years, mink production has declined by 50%, whilst fox farming has dropped by 68%.
The actual number of furs produced last year is significantly lower than expected from the rate of births, as nearly half a million fur animals were culled and destroyed in the autumn of 2023 due to avian influenza.
The few remaining farms are not financially viable. The average sale price of blue fox pelts was down 13% from the previous year. The production cost of a fox pelt currently exceeds the sales profit, and results in a loss of up to 50 euros per animal for the farmer. The average price of a mink pelt also declined by 2% from the previous year.
Following the mass culling of mink on Finnish fur farms due a bird flu outbreak in 2023, farmers received over 50 million euros of public funds in compensation, increasing scrutiny over the industry’s economic value.
Employment provided by the industry has halved in five years, undermining the social argument for propping up production.
In an opinion poll conducted by Animalia and Oikeutta Eläimille in 2023, 83% of Finns believed that fur farming should either be banned or that animals should be given significantly more space and opportunities to engage in species-specific behaviour.
The new statistics support the argument for a Fur Free Europe, as proposed by the successful European Citizens’ Initiative.
World Animals Voice 