Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

On 7 December 2023, the Commission adopted a proposal for new rules on the welfare of dogs and cats and their traceability aimed at improving the welfare of dogs and cats that are kept by breeders, selling establishments, and shelters, while also improving consumer protection, ensuring fair competition and fighting illegal trade.

The rapporteur broadly agrees with the proposal of the Commission and maintains its main welfare principles and obligations. The rapporteur especially aims to tackle the problem of fraud and substandard welfare of dogs and cats, without imposing excessive requirements on the individual honest dog and/or cat owner.

For the purpose of proportionality, the rapporteur makes a distinction between establishments of different sizes. On the one hand, all establishments, irrespective of the number of litters bred or the number of dogs or cats kept, should be subject to the general welfare principles and obligations, while on the other hand, only establishments keeping or placing on the market a certain number of dogs or cats should be subject to more comprehensive and detailed welfare obligations.

Since some organisations use foster homes to house abandoned, stray or unwanted cats and dogs, the rapporteur proposes to include foster homes within the scope of the regulation. On the other hand, the rapporteur proposes a full ban for placing on the market dogs and cats by pet-shops, given their inability to provide a suitable environment for the dogs and cats based on the concept of “five domains”.

Notification and registration requirements will apply to all establishments. However, given the shortages of veterinarians in the member states and in order to reduce administrative burden, prior approval following an on-site inspection should only apply to breeding establishments that produce more than five litters per year or that keep more than five female cats or dogs.

In order to exclude from the scope of the regulation the occasional and irregular donations of small numbers of dogs and cats by natural persons, the rapporteur clarifies the definition of “placing on the market”, which could only be done by those operators responsible for a breeding establishment, a selling establishment or a shelter.

With regards to breeding requirements, the rapporteur proposes changes in Annex I and a separated Article 6a, which comprehensively address issues such as limits on frequency, minimum and maximum age and the prohibition of certain breeding practices such as inbreeding and the breeding to produce hybrids. The rapporteur clarifies that these practices could in exceptional and duly justified cases be used to preserve local breeds with a limited genetic pool. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts concerning the excessive conformational traits by 2030. At the same time, the rapporteur is proposing that organisers of aesthetic shows, exhibitions and competitions should not include dogs or cats with excessive conformational traits or those, which have been mutilated for such events.

Mutilation practices such as ear cropping, tail docking, and the removal of claws are banned, unless they respond to a medical indication. Certain painful handling practices such as the use of prong collars or choke collars without safety top will be fully banned. The use of muzzles, could only be performed for public health, security or animal safety and welfare and to the minimum time necessary.

The rapporteur takes note of scientific evidence proving that alternative methods to surgical castration could be better suited in some cases, without the side effects of surgical castration. For this reason, the draft report explicitly allows veterinarians to consider non-surgical sterilisation to neutering, whenever appropriate, whilst clarifying the difference between neutering and non-surgical sterilisation in Article 3.

To ensure traceability and interoperability between databases, all dogs and cats will be individually identified and registered in a national database before they are placed on the market. In line with the original proposal from the Commission, the rapporteur recognises the implantation of a subcutaneous transponder containing a microchip as the default measure to comply with this obligation. However, the draft report explicitly enables veterinarians to delay the implantation of the microchip or to remove it, based on the animal’s health concerns. Moreover, the rapporteur proposes that the Commission includes in the evaluation reports, based on the assessment of technological developments, the possibility of using alternative means of identification, which are less invasive than the implantation of a transponder.

With regard to imports from outside the EU, the rapporteur differentiates between the import of dogs and cats for placing on the EU market and for non-commercial movements, aiming to prevent fraud and improve the traceability of dogs and cats. In both cases, the dogs or cats will have to be identified with a microchip before their entry into the EU. For the former, the importer shall ensure registration by a veterinarian in an EU database within five working days after they enter the EU. For the latter, the entry of dogs or cats into the EU will have to be pre-notified by the owner into an online Union pet travellers’ database, which must be run by the Commission.

Lastly, the rapporteur also introduced provisions linked to data protection, to ensure the protection of personal data contained, for instance, in the databases of dogs and cats or on information transmitted by establishments.