We have 30 days to take on Goliath – again

Summary

• The EU is accepting public input on farm animal welfare until Dec 12, 2025.
• Participating in this consultation is one of the most effective actions individuals can take to improve conditions for 149+ million animals.
• The action takes 15-30 minutes.
• Non-EU citizens can participate.

The moral urgency and the mundane seriousness

Animals raised for food in the European Union are mostly kept in horrendous artificial conditions with mechanized equipment and minimal care – the practice commonly known as factory farming. To quickly grasp what’s wrong with it, just take a look at this photo from a typical European farm that we investigated at Anima International:

This looks very different from how we treated these animals just a few decades ago. Forget idyllic pictures of happy, freely roaming animals. It’s not where our food comes from anymore.

Let’s look at eggs. Under EU-approved conditions for egg-laying hens:

• Each hen gets space the size of an A4 sheet of paper
• The birds will never see sunlight
• They have no access to grass, soil, or any vegetation – only wire flooring
• Their living environment is filled with irritating dust and unsettling noise

Every time we go to such places, we see collapsed animals, rotting bodies, improper handling, open wounds, and parasites crawling on distressed animals.

If you asked me to describe what hell looks like, I would immediately direct you to footage from a factory farm. Most people don’t want this to happen. So why does it continue unchanged?

There are many causes. But the main, perverse reason is that we, as a society, are ignored. People want farmed animals to have good lives. They constantly express this to their political representatives. They try to make better choices at the supermarket, navigating misleading welfare labels. Yet, agricultural and trade interests override their will again and again.

The EU claims to be democratic, but it fails to act like it

The EU's own research shows that people overwhelmingly oppose the current treatment of farmed animals – 84% of Europeans believe farmed animals deserve better protection. In fact, fewer people (74%) agreed with the same statement for companion animals, which indicates that the public recognizes farmed animal welfare as the more neglected issue. I’d argue that in today’s world that seems overly polarized, it’s hard to find an issue with more support.

This support is clearly reflected in the citizens' actions. The European Union offers democratic tools that allow its members to express their will, like The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). By 2020, 1.4 million Europeans signed the 'End the Cage Age' initiative to ban the use of cages in farming. In the European Parliament debate and vote that followed, a huge majority of MEPs called on the Commission to propose legislation banning cages across the EU.

The Commission responded by opening a 2022 consultation on cage bans, animal transport, chick culling, mutilations, and import standards. They received 59,000 responses – an unprecedented show of public support. Then... very little happened. Since 2021, the Commission has proposed legislation on just one farmed animal issue: live animal transport. Starting in late 2023, officials quietly shelved almost all other reforms.

The problem only you can fix

When the EU administration blatantly ignores citizens, it erodes trust in EU institutions and undermines the foundation of The European Union itself. People become disillusioned. But it’s not hopeless. We will not stop just because we have been ignored. 

Recently, the Commission opened another consultation – this time with a more narrow scope, concentrating on questions about cage confinement, the widespread killing of day-old male chicks, and requiring imports to meet EU welfare standards. They're asking for public input until December 12th.

We want the European Union to stand up to its values. It must:

• Implement the will of its citizens
• Protect animals from inhumane treatment
• Protect consumers, making sure that the products on the market align with their values and expectations
• Protect business owners from unfair competition and support them in transferring to more ethical practices

Strong participation in this consultation would create documented evidence that makes it politically harder for the Commission to backtrack or delay reforms again. High engagement demonstrates that animal welfare remains a priority for voters. Silence, on the other hand, would signal lack of public interest, making it easier to deprioritize these reforms entirely.

How to participate

The consultation is a simple online questionnaire, but the quality of the answers is important. That’s why we prepared a guide that will help you submit your answer. We made it easy to participate, even if you've never engaged with an EU consultation before.

If you only have 1 minute today:

1. Go to act.animainternational.org and commit to taking part in the consultation. We’ll send you the guidelines so that you can come back to them when you’re submitting your response.
2. Schedule 15–30 minutes in your calendar to do it before the 12 December deadline. Don’t worry, we’ll send you a reminder.

Everyone who cares about animals should participate

You don't need to be an EU citizen – the Commission wants to hear from people everywhere. The EU regulations may have an effect beyond its borders, and the import restrictions, if implemented, would prevent outsourcing animal suffering to other countries.

You also don't need to be an expert – they're asking for your personal opinion and values. That being said, the consultation is also open to researchers, NGOs, and institutions, whose voice would carry even more weight. If you’re part of an advocacy group, sign up here to get access to a Slack space and a toolkit designed to help you mobilize your supporters.

It really does matter

While filling out an online form may seem insignificant – many mock this kind of action as "clicktivism" – public consultations remain one of the few official tools we have as individuals to influence legislation affecting millions of animals. The minimal time and zero cost required is precisely what makes this action potentially cost-effective. Yes, the probability that your single submission will lead to change is low. Yes, it’s still factory farming. But it makes a difference to animals themselves. According to scientific research, moving a single hen from a cage to an aviary would spare her 7,233 hours of pain on average. Right now, there are 149.2 million hens in cages in the EU. This clearly shows that the potential gains for animals are enormous. When put that way, filling out a quick form seems like the least we can do.

Let's make ourselves hard to ignore.