The EU Commission have released a regrettable statement in response to the criticisms made concerning the Romanian dog-cull (for the purposes of rabies control).
One conclusion that can rationally be drawn from the statement is that the way animals are protected in the EU today is inadequate. It is precisely for this reason this website (and to date, 92,000+ people) are calling for the creation of a Directorate-General for animal welfare in the EU.
The basic problem is that despite the fact that animals are sentient, when they are mistreated in member-states, the Commission washes its hands of the offensive behaviour - preferring to state the issue is one for the member state!
Previous posts have shown the EU is willing to intervene to ensure trade/commerce is protected, even if animals have to suffer for it to continue.
We have previously argued that the EU is suffering from a deficit of moral leadership. This press release does nothing to change our position.
Judge for yourselves - here are two paragraphs from the document
"3. The welfare and management of stray animal populations is not governed by EU rules and remains under the sole responsibility of the Member States. In particular, Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which requires full regard for the welfare requirements of animals when formulating and implementing some EU policies, does not provide a legal base permitting all animal welfare issues to be addressed."
"7. The Commission will continue to pursue the work mentioned above, to which it attaches great importance, but will close the complaints as the grievances fall outside the scope of EU law."
The statement is called
Reply to complaint CHAP(2013) 3076 (2013/C 343/10)
and can be found at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:343:0021:0021:EN:PDF
One conclusion that can rationally be drawn from the statement is that the way animals are protected in the EU today is inadequate. It is precisely for this reason this website (and to date, 92,000+ people) are calling for the creation of a Directorate-General for animal welfare in the EU.
The basic problem is that despite the fact that animals are sentient, when they are mistreated in member-states, the Commission washes its hands of the offensive behaviour - preferring to state the issue is one for the member state!
Previous posts have shown the EU is willing to intervene to ensure trade/commerce is protected, even if animals have to suffer for it to continue.
We have previously argued that the EU is suffering from a deficit of moral leadership. This press release does nothing to change our position.
Judge for yourselves - here are two paragraphs from the document
"3. The welfare and management of stray animal populations is not governed by EU rules and remains under the sole responsibility of the Member States. In particular, Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which requires full regard for the welfare requirements of animals when formulating and implementing some EU policies, does not provide a legal base permitting all animal welfare issues to be addressed."
"7. The Commission will continue to pursue the work mentioned above, to which it attaches great importance, but will close the complaints as the grievances fall outside the scope of EU law."
The statement is called
Reply to complaint CHAP(2013) 3076 (2013/C 343/10)
and can be found at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:343:0021:0021:EN:PDF