Animal Welfare

How farmed animals are treated in Europe is a policy choice. The conditions in which billions of animals are raised and slaughtered are shaped by legislative frameworks that have not kept pace with scientific evidence or with the scale of public concern.

A system that tolerates suffering

Tens of billions of animals are farmed in the EU every year, the majority in intensive systems that restrict movement, prevent natural behaviours and cause suffering that current law tolerates but cannot justify on scientific or ethical grounds. Most will never see daylight or move freely. Many endure transport journeys lasting dozens of hours, across borders or to third countries, in conditions that cause extreme suffering, and too many are slaughtered in ways that remain inhumane.

This is not separate from the wider state of our food systems. Intensive animal production accounts for 70% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, contributes to water and soil pollution, and drives risks to public health through zoonotic disease transmission and antimicrobial resistance. The welfare of farmed animals and the sustainability of food systems are not separate questions; they are structurally connected.

An imcomplete and outdated legal framework

EU legislation governing farmed animal welfare is over twenty years old. The European Commission's own assessment concluded that existing rules are outdated and in need of thorough revision.

Public expectations have moved far further: successive Eurobarometer surveys show that over 80% of Europeans across all 27 Member States support stronger animal welfare standards, including a ban on cage farming. The political commitment to act has been repeatedly stated. Yet meaningful legislative follow-through has been largely absent.

Our work

AAFT works to close that gap. We engage directly with EU institutions across the legislative and regulatory processes that determine welfare standards for farmed animals, pushing for frameworks that reflect the latest scientific evidence, address the structural drivers of poor welfare and deliver meaningful, enforceable improvements for the animals they are designed to protect.

We push for a complete end to cage farming, for hens, pigs, rabbits, ducks and others, because confining sentient animals where they cannot even turn around cannot be defended on scientific or ethical grounds. Ending routine painful practices. Tail docking in pigs, beak trimming in poultry and force-feeding for foie gras production remain legal across the EU and affect hundreds of millions of animals every year. We work to end them.

Current rules are vague, generic and largely unenforceable. We advocate for species-specific standards that reflect what each animal actually needs: space, social interaction, and the ability to express natural behaviours and positive emotions. This includes fish and other aquatic animals, over a billion of which are farmed in Europe each year yet remain almost entirely absent from EU law.

The EU cannot credibly protect animals at home while permitting imports of animal products made under conditions that would be illegal on European soil. We advocate for genuine import equivalence requirements, because protecting welfare at home while outsourcing cruelty abroad is not a policy. It is a contradiction.