In Europe alone, many dogs and cats live as loved pets. Nevertheless, there are still instances of illegal breeding, animal cruelty, abandonment, and irresponsible pet ownership. The European Union is implementing one of the toughest animal welfare legislations in the world for dogs and cats. At platforms like mybestie.gr, where responsible pet care and trusted pet sitting are part of everyday life, these new rules could completely reshape the future of animal welfare in Europe. The upcoming regulations primarily concern enhancing the welfare, traceability, and safety of dogs and cats. In contrast to prior regulations where different rules applied from one country to another, the upcoming regulations intend to ensure that similar laws apply to every EU member state.

What has changed relative to the former law?

One of the major alterations concerns compulsory identification and tracking. According to new requirements, animals should increasingly be chipped and registered in national databases in order to prevent illegal trading, frauds, and dumping of pets. For the time being, most countries lacked such integrated system as different regions had different standards and there was no way to verify an animal's identity when it was bought or sold on the Internet. New legislation will make it impossible to sell or adopt an unregistered animal in order to cut costs on identification procedures for unethical breeders and puppy farms. The other important modification pertains to breeding regulations. Legislation aims at preventing breeding of animals with unhealthy features that affect their well-being. Thus, breeding of animals with exaggerated physical traits associated with long-term suffering can be considered as cruel and, hence, made unlawful. Moreover, new legislation makes strict provisions for inbreeding restrictions.

Finally, the act prescribes minimum welfare standards for breeders, shelters, and pet shops. Animals shall live in decent conditions, receive appropriate care, adequate space, and trained personnel. For instance, keeping animals in poor and inappropriate conditions forever can become unlawful.

How the new law benefits responsible pet owners

The new framework provides additional benefits for those who responsibly care for their pets. Microchipping and registration will increase the likelihood of finding lost pets and making sure that stolen pets cannot be sold in the black market. Moreover, the new legislation will help trace the source of pets bought on the Internet or from breeders. The ban on illegal breeding will probably lower the number of pets sold in poor condition because many people buy such pets without knowing about their poor state and bad living conditions at the breeder's facility. This regulation will provide additional guarantees for customers when buying pets since they will be able to get detailed information about the source of their future pets and how they were raised.

First of all, the new legislation emphasizes that pets are not products but living beings that need proper care and humane treatment.

Stricter laws against animal cruelty, neglect, and abuse

Undoubtedly, the biggest part about the proposed bill is that it has a much stricter attitude towards cruelty to animals and animal neglect. Animal abandonment has lately become one of the biggest problems in Europe, particularly during holidays, when shelters can hardly cope with the increased number of abandonments. Mandatory traceability will make it much harder for people to abandon their pets anonymously. Additionally, the proposed law could make investigating animal abuse more effective. If animals are properly registered and traceable, responsibility can be easily proven.

Finally, breeders, puppy mills, and traffickers could also experience stricter consequences for their actions and get more thorough inspections. Currently, there are quite a few loopholes that are actively used by such people in international commerce.

Finally, hunters and owners who use dogs to hunt would be required to provide better conditions for them. The latest EU laws concerning the well-being of pets signal an important cultural change. It might take some time to see them in action, but the trend is obvious – increased rights for animals, greater responsibility of owners and breeders, and severe punishment for animal abuse or abandonment.

This will be the first step to a better life for millions of animals throughout Europe.