Brussels, 21/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 21 January, animal rights organisations lodged a complaint at the European Commission against six countries for violating legislation on conditions for breeding pigs.
Compassion in World Farming carried out an 18 month investigation (in 2008 and 2009) in 74 pig- rearing farms in six EU countries (Denmark, Hungary, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), which revealed that “ the vast majority of pig-rearing concerns infringed the rules”. The investigation demonstrated that “90% of animals had their tails amputated and 60% of them were squashed into industrial pig-rearing conditions, without anywhere to dispose of their waste”, in breach of European legislation of 2003 on pig-rearing. Peter Stevenson, from Compassion in World Farming said that they were calling on member states to apply the law imposing access to an area for disposing their waste and banning the systematic docking of tails. He also said that consumers also have a role to play by eating organic free-range pork. (L.C./transl.fl)