Extreme breeding has become a major animal welfare concern, especially in the last decade with the surge in popularity of extremely brachycephalic (flat-faced) dogs and other companion animals showing extreme features. Countries across Europe have tried with varied success, different initiatives from education, media campaigns, to regulation, legislation and multi stakeholder working groups to name a few, to tackle the issue.

This report aims at mapping the existing legislation on extreme breeding and extreme features in the EU and other European countries. Aware of the already applied measures across the EU Member States, and having the EU consumer and the EU Single Market in mind, the report is calling for EU-wide legislative initiative as a prominent instrument to effect change.

The EU has to date not introduced any legal instrument to tackle gender-based violence and more general domestic violence. Following a fitness check conducted to analyse how current EU legislation impact violence against women and domestic violence, the European Commission will introduce a legislative proposal to combat violence against women and domestic violence, in line with the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025. There is a clear correlation between domestic violence and violence against companion animals. We are calling for the EU to include provisions related to companion animals to protect all victims of domestic violence, including women, children and animals.

Until now, any focus on the criminal pet trade has concentrated on the animal welfare and consumer
fraud aspects, but it has become clear that illegal trade is structured and organised by criminal elements. Both EU and the Member States recognize the need to join forces to tackle this increasingly pressing problem and point to long-term solutions for the sake of protecting the European citizens and the Single Market. Similar to the fight of central and local governments against drug trade and human trafficking, combatting pet trade controlled by criminal gangs must be assisted by mechanisms of support at the EU level.

As the illegal pet and wildlife trade carries low risks and high profits, it serves either as a diversification of income sources for organised crime groups, or as a main activity. Largely controlled by highly organised criminal structures, this multimillion euro industry clearly falls under the definition of organised crime, and must be addressed accordingly. Estimates of the value of wildlife trafficking alone reach up to EUR 8 billion to EUR 20 billion annually. To effectively fight this criminal activity, competent authorities must prioritise resources across all the illegal trade activities.