Include the excluded animals in the EU Treaties - without delay!

  • by: ESDAW
  • recipient: The EU Parliament, the EU Commission and the political groups.

Three years have passed since the EU issued a notice regarding companion animal welfare. Three more years of pain, suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats in Europe.
WE - the undersigned now say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !


The European Commission has acknowleged the complaints about the welfare of dogs and cats and the management of stray dogs especially in Romania, which they have answered under reference CHAP (2013) 3076:

  • The  European  Commission  has  received,  and  continues  to  receive,  a  series  of  complaints  about  the  welfare  and  management  of  stray  dogs  within the EU,  which  it  has  registered  under  reference  CHAP(2013) 3076 (see  acknowledgement at OJ C 314,  29.10.2013,  p. 9)
  • 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.

We ask the EU Commission to stop the repeated answers that companion animals and thus stray dogs are not subject to the EU Treaties and thereby terminate all petitions and complaints from EU citizens.

We ask the EU Commission to stop  transferring their responsibility to various organisations such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and CAROdog which are not heeded by the Member States and does not lead to the substantial changes that are necessary when it comes to the welfare of companion animals and stray animals.

We hereby ask the EU Parliament and the EU Commission to amend the European Union Treaties so that companion animals and thus stray dogs are subject to the EU common laws and regulations..... more info .... 

Remember, that a Member State can always choose to have stricter animal welfare legislation than the EU, but never a deterioration of an EU animal welfare law.
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We have a very good post from Spain, as:
"It is time for ESDAW and its supporters to post a LEGAL CHALLENGE in the European Court against the European Commission for failure to attend to its responsibilities under Lisbon and other protocols and the Commission's persistent under commitment in interpreting its responsibilities. When an institution has built up a long enough log of evasive tactics, it is time to launch a legal challenge. The Commission frequently - and rightly - mounts challenges in the Court to countries failing to respect and follow through EU directives and EU principles of accessibility and equality. For the Commission to accept some minimal responsibility for farm animals but none for homeless companion animals cannot survive rational scrutiny in the highest court."

Our answer is that this has already been done by others and not given any results. As long as companion animals are not covered by the EU Treaties, the EU has done no wrong, so it is difficult to go through the court. It is also complicated procedures to do this, because you first have to go through an EU member state court for the objective.
Animal Welfare Laws for companion animals are currently held by each EU Member State, and it is their legislations that apply and they shall ensure that these are followed.
We want to change so that companion animals are covered by the Treaties in order to obtain a common European animal Welfare basic law, so that all EU citizens can participate and democratically influence for a better Welfare for the companion animals in the EU and Europe.

Because of that many EU Member States and its governments year after year demonstrates a complete lack of ambitions to raise companion animal welfare MUST the companion animals immediately be subject to the EU Treaties.


EU legal actions are desperately needed to force the Member State's to improve their legislation concerning mandatory neutering and registering as well as regulations against animal neglect and abuse by strengthening basic laws and regulationsEU legal actions are also needed to increasing public education concerning responsible companion animal ownership.


The EU consists not only of money and trade - in Europe live humans and animals together in the community every day. And every day are citizens in many Member States forced, and many times the children, to witness the abandoned companion animals tragic fates.
Hit by vehicles and maimed, sick animals without care, starving and dehydrated dogs and cats, poisoned tormented animals, animals tortured for fun, dog catcher without education and empathy for animals. Substandard dog and cat enclosures operated only for the money - not for the sake of the animals.


The daily ongoing atrocities toward animals affects people and their mental health, social life and work.


When children witness when adults commit violence and cruelty to animals, becomes a child's view of everyday life oblique. There is no need for study in order to understand that children who often witness violence and abuse towards animals or people, get a disturbed picture of how a society should work and be.


Children learn and imitate adult's behavior, and thus becomes introduced to animal cruelty.


Children often start with cruelty to animals, which then turns into serious violence and criminality in adulthood. 

This also leads to that violence and abuse towards animals is transferred as something natural from generation to generation in a society, and may become entrenched as a tradition or even culture.


Parents are worried about how these atrocities will affect the child's relationship to the social life and society in adulthood.
Parents are also worried that the children might be attacked and injured or become infected with transmissible diseases by aggressive stray dogs when children are outdoors in the playgrounds.


They are very worried that children will find goodies that are spiked with poison, which neighbors usually put out in parks to the stray dogs. Banned and dangerous toxins as the pesticide Carbofuran is frequently used in Europe and children have become very sick and even died  when they have eaten the poison by accident.


Stray animals are poisoned when they become too many and when the neighborhood is no longer able to have so many animals in the area. Poisoning also happens on a regular basis in many European tourist destinations, particularly before the tourist seasons so that the tourism businesses will not be disturbed by starving and sick dogs and cats.


This occurs because the governments of those countries with abandoned and stray animals does nothing to help the animals or the citizens, leading to citizens taking matters into their own hands, even if it is forbidden.


To kill animals in this illegal way is a crime against all animal ethics laws that exist. It is incredibly painful for the animal to die by poisoning, often a 30 minutes long and protracted painful struggle in which the body's vital organs gradually collapses with uncontrolled cramps and spasms. It is also difficult to provide medical assistance for this type of poisoning.

Member States governments inability to ethically solve the problems of stray animals causes disunion in countries where the tradition of abandoning animals have become a culture and because of the uncontrolled population of stray animals, are the animals regarded and treated as vermin, and can be treated badly and cruelly in every possible way, while the authorities turn a blind eye.


The EU is also divided into two parts where Western Europe with structured animal welfare and almost no abandoned dogs is a strong contrast to the East and Southern Europe, where the number of abandoned and stray animals today is estimated to be 100 million animals.


This geographical differences in the European Union regard to the number of stray animals, the attitude towards companion animals and the same animals that become strays and the management of these, also means that EU citizens do not have the same basic conditions to live in a EU society where this problem exists and continues to exist. Children living are strongly affected in countries that have constant stray dogs and cats. These severe different conditions in some Member States in Europe is actually a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

To domesticate an animal means that the animal is more or less dependent on human care. Domesticated animals shall not be abandoned and having to fend for themselves in a society. A modern society shall not consider abandoned and stray animals as a natural part of society but should be considered abandoned and stray companion animals as aggravated cruelty to animals.


It takes about six generations for a dog to be as wild as a wolf and be able to hunt and behave naturally wild. If the average age for a companion dog is 8 year, it would take 48 years before the abandoned and homeless dog's future generations would survive without humans. The average life of a stray dog ​​is about 2 years.


It is now high time for the EU to listen to all the complaints sent to the EU by citizens from all over the Union regarding the welfare of companion animals in Europe.


We are the citizens of the European Union and we demand that the Treaties must immediately be amended to include owned  companion animals as well as abandoned and stray animals in Member States. The establishment of an EU  legal framework for the protection of pets and stray animals must be implemented without delay!


It is now high time to show the world that the EU is a democratic body that serves its citizens requests.


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We ask the EU Commission to stop the repeated answers that companion animals and thus stray dogs are not subject to the EU Treaties and thereby terminate all petitions and complaints from EU citizens.


We ask the EU Commission to stop  transferring their responsibility to various organisations such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and CAROdog which are not heeded by the Member States and does not lead to the substantial changes that are necessary when it comes to the welfare of companion animals and stray animals.


We hereby ask the EU Parliament and the EU Commission to amend the European Union Treaties so that companion animals and thus stray dogs are subject to the EU common laws and regulations.

WE - the undersigned now say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !



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