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.