According to a report published by the European Commission on 27 February, a large majority of respondents to a public consultation held by the Commission support the strengthening of European rules on the welfare of farm animals and the phasing out of cages for several species.
The consultation, organised between September and December 2025 with a view to revising European rules on the welfare of animals kept for farming purposes, attracted around 190,000 individual contributions.
Nearly 99% of responses came from citizens, the majority from Germany, Austria and France.
According to the results, 89% of respondents stated that current EU legislation does not sufficiently guarantee that farm animals can express natural behaviour.
Support for the abolition of cages is particularly strong. Around 99% of the public consider it important or very important to phase out cages for laying hens and pigs, a point also supported by over 90% of NGOs. Support is more nuanced among businesses, where around half are in favour. The main obstacles identified to abandoning cages are high investment costs, consumers’ unwillingness to pay more, space constraints on farms and lack of technical knowledge.
The consultation also showed overwhelming support (96% of respondents) for the idea of imposing animal welfare standards on products imported into the EU equivalent to those applied to European producers.
In addition, almost 98% of participants considered the systematic killing of male chicks in the laying hen sector to be ethically problematic, and felt there was an urgent need to develop alternatives.
The consultation is part of the impact assessment currently underway prior to the presentation of legislative proposals on animal welfare on farms.
NGOs mobilise. Animal welfare activists gathered outside the European Court of Justice on Thursday 5 March for a hearing on cage farming. At the hearing, lawyers representing the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) ‘End the Cage Age’ presented arguments to demonstrate that the Commission has an obligation to present a timetable on proposals to end cage farming for all species concerned.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/l1m (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)