Products and services intended for pets, including pet food, toys and other accessories, veterinary drugs and insurances, have been regulated for quite some time in the EU. Conversely, pet welfare is an emerging concept that reflects changing societal attitudes towards companion animals and their status in households. Especially cats and dogs are increasingly viewed as family members rather than property items, thus warranting legal protection as far as their physical and mental welfare is concerned (Duarte Cardoso et al, 2017).

Still, the regulation of pet welfare may also have important implications in terms of consumer protection, namely if one considers pet owners as consumers in the context of B2C commercial transactions.  

The European Union (EU) is moving exactly in this direction.

On 7 December 2023, the European Commission published a legislative proposal for the welfare of dogs and cats, which is undergoing ordinary legislative procedure at EU level. This proposal is meant to lay down a comprehensive set of welfare requirements for such animals when involved in commercial activities, i.e., when kept in and sold by breeding establishments, pet shops (where national legislation so allows) or animal shelters. 

In the last 50 years, the EU has developed a wide-ranging body of law for the protection of animals. In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon gave more political prominence to animal welfare by formally recognising animals as sentient beings and by requiring the EU and its Member States to take their welfare into account when developing and implementing other EU policies, such as agriculture, fisheries, research, or the internal market (Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).

However, until now EU legislation has mainly focussed on the protection of the welfare of farmed animals. General welfare requirements exist for the rearing, transport and slaughter of farmed animals, in addition to standards that are species-specific (e.g., laying hens, broilers, calves, pigs, etc.).

Conversely, references to pet welfare in EU animal welfare legislation are scant. One notable exception is Regulation (EC) No 1/2005, which regulates animal welfare during transport and sets out specific standards for the transport of dogs and cats in the context of commercial activities (notably, minimum age as well as feeding and watering requirements). These standards are currently being reviewed to ensure a higher level of protection for those companion animals.

Other than that, EU legislation currently requires dogs and cats to be identified through a microchip, but only when imported into the EU or moved from one EU Member State to another one. This requirement – which is laid down in the Animal Health Law – pursues animal health objectives rather than animal welfare ones and acknowledges that even the most seemingly harmless pet may carry diseases that can be transmitted to other animals as well as to humans (e.g., rabies).

But why are EU-wide welfare rules for companion animals necessary in the long run? And why are such rules also relevant for pet owners as consumers?

The number of dogs and cats living in European households has grown exponentially over the last years and turned into a commercial activity of great economic significance (valued 1.3 billion EUR annually and employing around 300,000 workers). This makes the trade of dogs and cats particularly exposed to illegal activities. Two EU control plans coordinated by the European Commission (the first one in 2018 and the second one in 2022 -2023) have shown that  illegal trade of dogs and cats is a highly profitable business for rogue traders with online platforms providing new opportunities for them to operate undisturbed and undetected. Forgeries of documents (e.g., vaccination and health certificates), sale of underage and/or unvaccinated pets and cross-border trafficking are amongst the most recurrent violations reported.

While the economic impact of this illegal trade remains quite hard to estimate, its prevalence and the associated risks – for animal health and welfare but also for human health – have warranted it the legal status of ‘organised crime’, following the adoption of the EU Strategy to Tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025.  

In addition, higher consumer demand for specific aesthetic traits – like shortened limbs in Basset Hounds or extremely folded ears in Scottish fold cats – have resulted in the adoption of industry breeding strategies that may be detrimental to the welfare of the animal as well as of its offsprings.

From this standpoint, prospective pet owners engaging in a commercial transaction for the purchase of a companion animal are no different from any other consumer. As such, they may reasonably expect law to afford adequate protection of their financial interests, their health and safety, for instance, by ensuring they receive complete, accurate and reliable information about the animal before purchasing it. This information might include:

– The identity of the pet (e.g., date of birth, sex, breed, etc.);

– Its origin (e.g., country, but also breeding / selling establishment, litter etc.); and

– Its health status as attested, e.g., by the vaccinations administered, genetic tests and other veterinary records, but also its physical and mental welfare resulting from the way in which the animal was bred and kept just before being sold.

The latest draft text of the European Commission’s proposal under exam – which was adopted in June this year and is the outcome of the first round of discussions held by EU Member States in Council – recognises the right of prospective pet owners to be duly informed by introducing more stringent traceability requirements for the whole EU.

Against this background, in the future most breeding establishments will have to be registered, audited and approved by national competent authorities before being able to operate (Articles 7 and 7a). In addition, all dogs and cats will have to be identified and duly registered in national databases (currently, most EU Member States ensure that for dogs but not for cats), which will be interconnected with an EU database to be managed by the European Commission (Articles 17 and 19). Prospective pet owners will be given the possibility to access the information kept in such databases, free of charge, with the objective to verify the authenticity of the information provided by the seller about the animal (Article 17, par. 6). As an additional guarantee, future EU legislation will require owners introducing their pets into the EU to pre-notify this movement to an additional IT system yet to be built, i.e., the EU Pet Traveller’s database (Article 21, par. 4a). This last requirement is intended to ensure stricter surveillance at EU borders to unveil cases where pets are introduced into the EU market for commercial purposes under the disguise of non-commercial movements.

Of course, the contours of the EU protection that prospective pet owners may come to enjoy in the future will ultimately depend on the outcome of the ongoing interinstitutional negotiations. Besides, EU tertiary legislation is poised to set out further details for its exercise, application and enforcement.    All in all, even if the primary goal of the European Commission’s legislative proposal is to regulate pet welfare, both as an element of EU’s agricultural policy and of a well-functioning internal market, its current text clearly shows that consumer protection has a role to play in this context. Ultimately, this may be regarded as the latest evolution in the broader societal shift we have been witnessing towards the recognition of the moral and legal status of companion animals in our lives.