Animals

Human and animal health are closely linked. We're all about the One Health principle, which involve keeping animal health, food safety and public health in check at the same time.

The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on 1 December 2009, made some changes to European law about animals, establishing that they're sentient beings, meaning they can feel things like pain, pleasure and fear. This means that the European Union and its Member States have to think about animal needs when deciding and implementing public policies in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, transport, the internal market, research and technology, and space.

 

There are three dimensions to animal welfare.

Health
Animals should be able to live healthy lives, which means they need to be well-fed, taken care of by a vet when they're sick, kept clean, not in pain and not getting sick in the first place
Safety
Some animals are exposed to physical hazards or risks that can have traumatic effects. It's really important that they're safe, so we need to make sure there are spaces that can stop them escaping, and that they're not in any danger or put under too much stress
Protection
It's important to treat animals fairly and protect their rights. We need to have specific rules against mistreating them, and these need to be checked and enforced. If someone treats an animal badly or neglects them, they should be punished

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