EU Parliament's Motion for a Resolution on Stray Animals

On 18 March 2014, the AGRI- Committee of the European Parliament has adopted a Motion for a Resolution on dealing with the problem on stray animals in form of a letter to the President of the European Parliament.

Initiated by the Italian Member of the Parliament, Segio Paolo Francesco Silvestris, the motion for a resolution was adopted by a largge majority of 21 votes pro and 4 votes against.

In this letter, the AGRI-Committee calls on the Commission to draw up general guidelines on dealing with the problem of stray animals in accordance with the general animal welfare principles. The Committee considers as well that, by 2018, Member States shall introduce a registration requirement for dogs.Moreover the Commission shall submit the European Parliament and the Council by 31 July 2019 a report on the experience of the member states with the registration and identification of dogs, with particular reference to stray animals.

(download it: here)

Motion for a resolution – persuant to rule 120 of the rules of procedure on dealing with the problem of stray animals

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Rule 120 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas, despite an increase in the number of adoptions from animal shelters, the problem of stray animals is still far from solved in the EU;

B. whereas the control methods used to date – most of which involve capture and sterilisation – have failed to stem the problem;

C. whereas some Member States have employed drastic measures, including euthanasia;

D. whereas Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires the EU and Member States to ‘pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals’, since they are sentient beings; whereas EU animal welfare legislation covers a range of issues including breeding, slaughter and scientific research, but still contains no provisions on stray animals;

E. whereas, according to recent estimates, there are more than 100 million pets in the EU;

1. Calls on the Commission to draw up general guidelines on dealing with the problem of stray animals in accordance with general animal welfare principles;

2. Calls on the Member States to use part of their structural funding to address the problem of stray animals, focusing first and foremost on the areas in which the problem is most acute.