Animal welfare and wildlife protection: EU laws explained
Find out what the EU is doing to protect pets, farm and laboratory animals, and wildlife, and what new laws are in the pipeline.
Table of contents
The EU has some of the world’s highest animal welfare standards, and the need to pay attention to animal welfare is enshrined in the EU treaty.
The Union and the Member States shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals
EU animal welfare rules reflect the “five freedoms” - international standards for the welfare of animals when under human control:
- Freedom from hunger, malnutrition and thirst
- Freedom from fear and distress
- Freedom from heat stress or physical discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease
- Freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour
Pet welfare
An EU pet passport allows dogs, cats and ferrets to travel safely across EU borders. This health certificate is the only requirement (with exceptions) for people to travel freely within the EU with their pets.
Recent rules to combat cat and dog abuse
To protect our furry friends, the EU banned the trade in cat and dog fur back in 2008.
More recently, to prevent cruelty to dogs and cats, in April 2026 the European Parliament passed the first ever EU law setting standards for the breeding, housing, traceability, import and handling of cats and dogs. It seeks to protect pet welfare by banning harmful breeding and handling practices and combating the illegal trade in pets.
Some of the rules will enter into force in mid-2028, others in the coming years.
Farm animal welfare
The first EU rules protecting farm animals date back to the 1980s. They were based on the 1978 European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes.
The 1998 directive for the protection of farmed animals established general standards for the protection of all animals kept for the production of food, wool, skin, fur or other farming purposes.
Other EU rules set welfare standards for farm animals during stunning and slaughter, and breeding conditions for specific animal categories, such as calves, pigs and laying hens.
In the pipeline: legislation update and ban on caged farming
As some of these laws now date back more than 20 years, the European Commission is currently preparing an update of on-farm animal welfare legislation for certain animals. The draft legislation is expected before the end of 2026 and there has already been a public consultation.
The bill is expected to include a proposal to ban caged farming in the EU. This follows a 2021 European citizens’ initiative to “End the cage age”.
Animal transport
The current EU laws on the protection and welfare of animals during transport were approved back in 2004. The European Parliament called for the legislation to be brought up to date in 2019 and 2022.
Parliament’s demands for improvement included:
- better enforcement of the regulation,
- sanctions for EU countries that fail to implement it properly,
- efforts to ensure imports comply with EU standards,
- reduced journey times, and
- shorter supply chains, to encourage the transport of meat instead of live animals.
The European Commission proposed a new draft law to address these concerns in 2023. Legislative work on the bill is ongoing.
Animal testing
The EU has a legal framework governing the use of animals in research for the development of new medicines, physiological studies and the testing of food additives and chemicals.
The EU’s animal testing rules are based on the principle of the three ‘R’s:
- Replacement: fostering the use of alternative methods
- Reduction: trying to use fewer animals for the same objective
- Refinement: efforts to minimise pain and suffering
Animal testing of cosmetics and the marketing of such products is prohibited in the EU, except to assess workers’ exposure and environmental risks when no alternative testing means are available. In 2018, Parliament called for a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics.
Recent developments on animal testing
Following the 2021 European citizens’ initiative “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing”, the Commission adopted a roadmap for phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments on 1 June 2026.
Wildlife protection
Wildlife habitats, hunting and trading, and zoos, are all covered by EU legislation.
Protecting endangered species, natural habitats and biodiversity
The 500 wild birds that are native to the EU are protected by the 2009 Birds Directive.
The 1992 Habitats Directive meanwhile focuses on the conservation of rare, threatened and endemic animal species and characteristic habitats.
The directive was amended in 2025 to change the wolf's status from "strictly protected" to "protected", giving countries more flexibility to manage growing wolf populations while still maintaining the species’ favourable conservation status.
The EU pollinators initiative, first launched in 2018 and revised in 2023, seeks to tackle the decline in wild pollinating insects, especially bees. This ties in with the EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy and the 2024 Nature Restoration law, which binds all EU countries to work towards restoring natural habitats.
The EU also wants to combat global forest loss, which endangers the habitat of many species. In 2023, Parliament approved new rules obliging companies to verify that products sold on the European market have not contributed to deforestation or forest degradation anywhere in the world.
Regulating wildlife hunting and trading
Whales and dolphins are protected from capture and killing in EU waters. In addition, the EU has always been a defender of the full implementation of the moratorium on commercial whaling, in place since 1986.
An EU regulation bans the trade in seal products.
There are also rules on trapping methods, prohibiting the use of leghold traps to catch wild animals in the EU and setting humane standards.
The EU implements and goes beyond the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) through its wildlife trade regulations, designed to ensure that the trade in wildlife products does not lead to species becoming endangered.
Zoos
The EU rules on keeping wild animals in zoos seek to strengthen zoos’ role in the conservation of biodiversity and set standards for protection measures, including appropriate accommodation for animals.
