Animal welfare and intensive animal farming in the European Union

Abstract

This dissertation explores the issues related to animal welfare arising from intensive farming practices, with a particular focus on the legislation related to the area. The aim of the literature review has been to give an overall framework of what intensive farms are, and how EU law works to protect the welfare of farmed animals by describing the existing legislations and introducing the Five Freedoms Model, guidance to the EU member States on the necessities of farmed animals. This information has been given in order to answer the research question chosen for the purpose of this dissertation: how does the EU legislation protect animal welfare in factory farming? What different legislation exists and which species do they protect? Moreover, the analysis chapter aimed to answer the other research question: how well is this legislation implemented in practice? Using pigs as an example, do various countries in the EU uphold the standards promulgated in law? In order to investigate the above, it has been necessary to use qualitative methods of research, as the information needed to answer those questions had to be searched in deep. Both primary and secondary sources have been used in this research, as the former are connected to the EU law and the latter are related to the reports of experts and NGOs, which are fundamental to describe the real-life scenarios of EU intensive farms for pigs. Throughout the research, it has been noticed that the EU legislation in this field is not well enforced and EU Member States do not always follow the directives, as there is a lack of control of the overall situation.