Animal Welfare and Protection of Farm Animals in the European Union

The European Union (EU) has set a high level of protection for farm animals, probably the highest in the world, spawning secondary legislation (directives and regulations) envisaging minimum welfare standards on rearing, slaughter and transport of farm animals and specific requirements for certain species (pigs, calves, laying hens, broilers). The resulting 'EU animal welfare law', which stems from the recognition of animal sentience in Article 13 TFEU (Lisbon version), protects not only farm animals, but all animals kept in captivity (laboratory animals, pets and animals in zoos). In the present paper, the attention will be focused on the protection of the welfare of farm animals: (animals in intensive stock-farming systems). In particular, I will try to evaluate first, whether this growing corpus of regulations and directives has a beneficial impact on the daily life of billions of animals exploited by the human being for food. Second, I will highlight the main legal developments (which have implied the banning of some of the worst aspects of intensive livestock production, such as veal crates, barren battery cages for egg-laying hens and sow stalls), as well as the main existing shortcomings (mainly related to the lack of an adequate enforcement). In legal terms, animal welfare law raises the issue of the mismatch between legal expectations and practical outcomes, already raised in the literature with reference to the poor record of environmental law.