Tell the WTO: Stop Ignoring Hen Welfare!
- by: Care2.com
- recipient: WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy
The European Union has implemented strict guidelines for farm animal welfare while developing huge penalties for conventional battery cage use for laying hens.
Fourteen years later, eggs from countries with poor welfare standards are saturating the EU market, driving the price of local, humanely produced eggs through the roof. Egg producers in the 27 EU member states have their hands tightly bound, as their welfare standards are continually disregarded.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is supposed to ensure a level playing field for domestic producers but clearly they are not applying the same rules to EU farmers. The EU should be allowed to ban imports of eggs that do not meet their welfare standards. In addition to protecting domestic producers, the agreement would ensure that other countries will take better care of their hens.
Please send a letter to Pascal Lamy, the WTO's Director-General, and let him know it is not acceptable to ignore animal welfare!
Dear Director Lamy,
I am writing to oppose The WTO's current lack of trade regulation based on animal welfare. The free market may be a platform for a multiplicity of interests, but in the case of the European Union, the people have spoken in an overwhelming majority in favor of higher welfare standards.
Producers in the 27 member states of the EU came together to clean up their act and create guidelines for safer animal products fifteen years ago. Today, eggs that are produced under poor hen welfare conditions are undercutting the market.
For the sake of moving toward a global standard in animal welfare, I urge you to implement baseline sanctions that respect and adhere to international agreements such as the EU's animal welfare laws.
[Your comments will be inserted here.]
Thank you,
[Your Name Here]
