Pet owners are in danger of getting into serious trouble due to a law amendment that the Senate approved last week. This new law, introduced by the Party for the Animals, provides that from 1 January 2023, animals may no longer experience pain or discomfort if they are kept in a stable, pen or cage.
The law is not only about livestock – such as chickens, pigs and cows – but also about pets. “You can also think of the lonely rabbit in the hutch in the backyard or the bird in the cage,” says Bas Rodenburg, professor of animal welfare at Utrecht University. According to the new law, animals must be able to display natural behaviour: pens, stables and cages must be adapted accordingly.
freedom of movement
“A rabbit is now often alone in a pen, while they are actually very social animals,” says Rodenburg. “That also applies to parakeets and other birds, which naturally have a lot of freedom of movement.” Furthermore, cats should always be given the opportunity to go outside.
Rodenburg questions the feasibility: “The question is whether the law can be enforced.” Outgoing minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) advised against the amendment of the law last April. Nevertheless, a majority in the House of Representatives agreed. The Senate also agreed last week: the senate dismissed it as a hammering piece.
Victory Party for the Animals
Parties in parliament are now concerned. “Can we still walk dogs on a leash or should we give them the freedom to eat the neighbor’s cat?” CDA MP Derk Boswijk wonders. VVD, CDA, SGP and BBB also fear disastrous consequences for livestock farming in the Netherlands.
Schouten says that her ministry is ‘analyzing’ what the adopted law will mean in practice. “The law is worded very openly,” she says. “Within you have to look at what is possible and what is not.” For example, according to Schouten, it is difficult to determine exactly what the natural behavior of animals is.
In any case, the amendment to the law is a major victory for the Party for the Animals, which proposed this in the House of Representatives at the end of April. “All ducks swim in the water,” Party for the Animals MP Leonie Vestering quoted the well-known children’s song. “But every year, more than 8 million ducks in Dutch livestock farming have no bathing water, which means they cannot swim. Without swimming water, their entire weight is constantly resting on their webbed feet. Their bodies are not built for that. Young chicks fall over, lie there and die.”
That message touched a majority in the House: D66, PVV, PvdA, SP, Forum for Democracy, GroenLinks, JA21 and Volt, among others, supported the amendment: 89 of the 150 MPs were in favor. The amendment ensures that ‘keeping animals in a certain farming system’, such as stables, may no longer be a ‘reasonable purpose’ for hurting animals.
A legal formulation that means that animals must be able to display their natural behavior as much as possible from 2023. And that goes beyond ducks having to swim in the water. For example, pigtails may no longer be burned away, calves and goats may no longer be dehorned and rabbits must be able to dig in the ground. It is also possible that pigs should always be able to root in the mud, and that calves and piglets should not be taken from their mothers shortly after birth. “If you strictly implement this amendment, it will be the end of intensive livestock farming,” said a source at the Ministry of Agriculture.
More clarity for the summer
But now that the amendment to the law has been adopted by both Houses, Schouten has to do something with it. She is working on a ‘legal analysis of the consequences and an analysis of the impact on animal husbandry practice’. “I will inform the House about the state of affairs before the summer recess,” Schouten said in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Party leader Esther Ouwehand of the Party for the Animals wants Schouten to draw up a plan with livestock farming to implement the law. “Ministers have promised several times in the past twenty years that the natural behavior of animals will become the guiding principle in livestock farming,” Ouwehand repeated in the House on Tuesday.
murmuring at farmers
Meanwhile, farmers are grumbling. The Producers Organization Pig Farming (POV) thinks that the parties most likely ‘have not realized’ what the amendment entails and what consequences it will have. Farmer foreman Jan Cees Vogelaar – active for JA21, of which party leader Joost Eerdmans therefore voted in favour – now states that it is ‘great’ for livestock farming to develop systems that are better suited to the natural characteristics of animals. “But with common sense,” adds Vogelaar.
“This impracticable proposal not only takes livestock farming hostage, but may also have far-reaching consequences for people with pets,” says VVD MP Thom van Campen. “It totally misses its target.” Van Campen wants Schouten to come up with ‘realistic rules’. The minister told Van Campen on Tuesday that the VVD agreed in the Senate last week not to debate the amendment to the law and to treat it as a hammering piece.
2023 is ‘too soon’
Professor Rodenburg says he is not surprised by the tightening of the law. “Animal welfare is becoming an increasingly important topic in the Netherlands and in the House of Representatives. At the same time, it is also a subject about which much is decided at European level. There are currently also discussions about major changes in livestock farming to improve animal welfare.”
According to Rodenburg, the effective date of January 1, 2023 is too soon. “The deadline is short, while the changes are significant. You run the risk that livestock farming will not be given the opportunity and time to make the necessary adjustments.”
CDA: law is unwise
CDA MP Derk Boswijk thinks it is unwise to give ‘natural behavior of animals’ ample scope. “It sounds very sympathetic. But sometimes it is in the interest of other animals, or the animal itself, to limit its natural behavior.” Boswijk also fears that pet owners will run into problems due to the new law.
Schouten does not want to anticipate the question of what exactly farmers and pet owners will notice from the new law. “But I understand the demand for more clarity.” It is expected that after the summer the House of Representatives will have to debate what is meant by natural animal behavior. And whether rabbits, pigs and ducks may indeed no longer be kept in a pen after 2023.
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