This reports provides an overview of current housing standards for mink, foxes and racoon dogs farmed for their fur in European countries, and confirms, through scientific evidence, that attempts to introduce cage enrichment or alternative housing systems to improve animal welfare are doomed to failure.

In the first edition of this report, published in 2015, we examined the welfare of mink and foxes farmed for fur in Europe and evaluated the fur industry’s WelFur protocols for on-farm welfare assessment. We concluded that WelFur could not address the major welfare issues for mink and foxes farmed for fur, the issues associated with inhumane handling and slaughter methods, or the serious inadequacies in fur labelling and regulation in Europe.

In this revised edition of our report, we update the scientific evidence regarding the welfare of animals farmed for fur in Europe, assess claims that these animals are, or could be, domesticated, and the credibility of WelFur.

Exotic pets in Europe are not only a mounting concern for animal welfare, public health and safety, and biodiversity conservation, but the patchwork of efforts to regulate the trade in Member States also undermines the internal market. The lack of uniformity in approaches across the Union makes the true extent of trade flows difficult to monitor and the enforcement of the rules that exist next to impossible.

As a solution, this White Paper proposes the establishment of an EU-wide positive list. This list would be elaborated using scientific risk assessments of which species can be considered ‘companion animals’ in full respect of their welfare needs, and their biological and husbandry requirements.

Request to the European Commission to re-open the infringement proceedings against Sweden regarding its wolf management policies and investigate the legality of its lynx management policies.

This report discusses the present state and future prospects of fur farming in Finland. The report was carried out as part of the ORSI research project investigating fair and robust methods to make Finland environmentally sustainable. The ORSI looks at structural changes linked to changing societal values, causing some industries to shrink or disappear while others emerge, offering new job opportunities. Gradually losing societal acceptance, fur farming is one example of an industry experiencing such disruption.

This report explores the structural changes in the Finnish fur farming sector, paying particular attention to future options.

This review aims to provide an overview of past studies and investigations conducted to analyse the online exotic pet trade in the EU. It focuses on investigations conducted to determine the number and species of live animals traded from, into and within the EU through digital means.

The EU is known to be one of the world’s largest wildlife markets and a central hub for the exotic pet trade. Millions of exotic pets are estimated to be owned in private households, including among others mammals, birds and reptiles.

This report provides some insight into the scale of the pet market in the EU in selected Member States, as well as an overall estimation of the number of, CITES listed, wild animals imported into the EU as pets over the last ten years.

In the EU, a large number of species are subject to lethal control. The objective of such control varies from one species to another. It is important to note that the classification of a species can differ from one Member State to the other, and even from a locality to another within this Member State, depending on the local context. Hence, some species can be protected in a Member State while considered a “pest” in another. Some species can also be classified in several categories.

This is a position paper on preventing, planning, and promoting the use and exploration of non-lethal alternatives prior to the use of lethal management.

Wild animal pet markets, also called exotic pet fairs, shows, exhibitions or expos, are events organised by the industry and breeder associations; where multiple businesses and hobby breeders display and sell live animals and related-products to visitors. Some of these markets solely focus on traditional pets while others also cover or are dedicated to exotic animals including a wide range of species of birds, reptiles and amphibians, but also mammals and fish and other animals such as spiders or snails.

This review is based on 9 investigations that have been carried out in wild animal pet markets in the EU and UK, addressing animal welfare, public health and invasiveness concerns. In this review, the key findings from these investigations are presented, highlighting key knowledge gaps that must be addressed to further understand and tackle the exotic pet trade.

With more than 600 million confirmed cases since its emergence in late 2019, and more than 6.5 million deaths, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the devastating human and economic cost of emerging infectious diseases. Approximately three quarters of emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic (originating in animals).

This report examines the role of animals farmed for fur in the COVID-19 pandemic and their potential role in the emergence of future pandemics of human respiratory disease.

On 22nd October 2014 the European Parliament and the Council adopted the EU Regulation N. 1143/2014.

As foreseen by Article 4 of the Regulation, on 13 July 2016 the European Commission adopted by means of an implementing act a list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern

At EU level, there are now 66 Invasive Alien Species of Union concern, 30 animal species and 36 plant species, to which EU measures apply. The animal species consist of 4 fish species, 2 insect and rhabditophora species, 2 amphibian and reptile species, 6 crustacean species, 5 bird species and 11 mammal species.

Many of these species are brought into Europe intentionally, to be kept as pets or used as products of the fur or food industry. These animals can escape and some are deliberately released into the wild. Roughly 10-15 % of alien species arriving in Europe eventually become invasive. Invasive alien species are one of the major causes of biodiversity loss.

The IAS Regulation introduces an EU-wide system to tackle this issue, with the Union List at its core. This is the list of priority species which require EU action to prevent, minimise or mitigate their adverse impacts.

The purpose of this position is to discuss the Union List of Invasive Alien Species from an animal welfare standpoint. Eurogroup for Animals feels that conservation efforts in Europe and globally should include animal welfare as a pillar of their decision-making frameworks. We are working to pollinate policy making institutions such as The Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) and more with animal welfare language and considerations.

Eurogroup for Animals supports conservation efforts to save biodiversity, maintaining its contribution to ecosystem functioning.

Summary report - In the context of the unprecedented and ongoing biodiversity crisis, trophy hunting puts an additional pressure on populations of threatened species that are already facing a multitude of threats to their survival, including habitat loss and degradation, climate change, wildlife trade, poaching, and human-wildlife conflict.

The EU is the biggest importer of Australian kangaroo meat and skins, accounting for 65% of this trade. Their meat is sold in European supermarkets or used in pet food and their skin is used for luxury sports equipment such as shoes. Between 2016 and 2019, EU imports of kangaroo skins almost doubled in quantity, and kangaroo meat increased by 11%. The EU has a very important role to play in stopping the cruel and unnecessary commercial hunting of kangaroos in Australia to safeguard this iconic species.

In the context of the unprecedented and ongoing biodiversity crisis, trophy hunting puts an additional pressure on populations of threatened species that are already facing a multitude of threats to their survival, including habitat loss and degradation, climate change, wildlife trade, poaching, and human-wildlife conflict.

Following the European Commission’s commitment to a cage-free future for farming and the move towards a species-specific behaviour approach, the keeping of innately wild animals in confinement simply cannot be legitimised. The clear societal consensus across Europe is that the keeping and killing of animals merely for their fur is unethical – a view reflected both through national prohibitions and the abandonment of fur
products by increasing numbers of retailers.

This report explores why we need to ban fur farming and the placement of farmed fur products on the European market, from a public health, legal, environmental and ethical perspective.

Trophy hunting puts additional pressure on threatened species and can have detrimental consequences for the genetic integrity and survival of species and the ecosystems of which they are a part, without delivering meaningful economic benefits for local communities. The trophy hunting industry entrenches unjust social structures and is plagued with weak governance, corruption, lack of transparency, excessive quotas, illegal hunting, poor monitoring and other problems. Banning imports of hunting trophies is an overdue step towards giving endangered wildlife a future.

The European Commission published its proposal for the revision of the Environmental Crime Directive (2008/99/EC). Despite clear improvements, Eurogroup for Animals calls for a more ambitious framework. This proposal remains insufficient for Member States to ensure the prosecution of all wildlife-related offences, provide adequate penalties and address the proper care of confiscated animals.

We call on the Members of the European Parliament and Member States to consider and support the proposals detailed in this Position Paper, responding to European citizens’ concerns and the alarming need to protect wild animals and the wider biodiversity.

The use of massive hunting of wild boar populations as a main approach to limit further spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) is considered inhumane and inefficient by Eurogroup for Animals. To successfully curb the spread of this disease, an unbiased, science-based approach and innovative solutions are needed. Research demonstrates that the focus must be on prevention and the strict application of biosecurity measures - benefiting animals, people and biodiversity.

The UK is home to over half of the European Badger (Meles meles) population. A 2017 survey estimated the population in England and Wales to be 485,000. Since 2013, more than 140,000 badgers, a species listed on Annex III of the Bern Convention, have been killed under licence in England as part of the UK Government’s attempts to control bovine TB in cattle. In 2019, The Born Free Foundation, Badger Trust, and Eurogroup for Animals jointly submitted a Complaint to the Bern Convention, citing clear breaches of Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the Convention in relation to UK Government policy on badger culling in England.

Today’s growing concerns about the ethics of using wild animals for public entertainment have led to increasing calls from the public to end this practice. In Europe, this is reflected in the national legislation of 24 Member States, as well as the UK’s England, Wales and Scotland, who have adopted restrictions on the use of either all, or exclusively wild, animals in circuses. This report provides an overview of the current legislation and restrictions on the use of animals in circuses in all EU Member States, with a particular focus on the process of enforcement of total bans on the use of wild animals in the respective countries. The goal of this analysis is to recommend solutions that can be adopted when phasing out the use of wild animals in circuses.

The evidence that mink in fur farms can efficiently transmit and serve as intermediate hosts for the virus poses a considerable threat to public health and has potential implications at European level for COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development. Mink farms, where thousands of mink are housed together in high density, constitute potential reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 as well as for associated mutations. It points to the risks associated with the intensive rearing of mink also with regard to future epidemics.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to high mortality, sickness and unprecedented damage to our economy. Our healthcare system is overburdened, levels of unemployment are rising and people’s everyday lives have been extraordinarily disrupted by this emerging, deadly zoonotic disease. This paper outlines the key issues at stake with respect to COVID-19 and fur farming and makes various recommendations to ensure that the production of fur does not impede efforts to eradicate this disease by preserving a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, or undermining the efficacy of future vaccines.

Although kangaroos and wallabies are Australia’s national symbol, almost 90 million of them have been hunted for their skin or meat over the last 30 years. All commercially hunted kangaroos are wild animals, not farmed for meat production purposes, and the EU currently is Australia’s main market for kangaroo exports, both for skins and hides and for meat products. This report provides explains why Eurogroup for Animals believes it is high time that the EU introduces an import ban on all goods derived from the hunting of kangaroos.