A doe in a gestation cage at a farm in Chemillé-en-Anjou, Maine-et-Loire, France, June 22, 2023. LOIC VENANCE/AFP
On the Eurogroup for Animals website, a platform uniting European organizations that advocate for animal welfare, a counter displays the number of days (924, 925, 926...) that the overhaul of animal welfare regulations – promised by the European Commission before the end of 2023 – has been delayed. This wide-ranging legislative project was first announced in 2019 with the launch of the "Farm to Fork" strategy. The package was to include a gradual ban on caged farming systems and other major reforms on farming, transportation, slaughter and labeling conditions for consumers.
But this regulatory "big bang," intended to update laws that are more than a quarter-century old and now lag behind both scientific knowledge of animal needs and public expectations, appears thoroughly bogged down. The European Commission has presented only a single proposal on animal transport, which remains stalled at both the member state level and in the European Parliament, where rapporteurs from the environment and agriculture committees have failed to reach an agreement. Worse still, some recent European decisions – including the downgrading of the wolf's protected status in May 2025 from "strictly protected" to "protected species" – signal a step backward for animal welfare.
