The illegal pet trade can be only addressed with the mandatory identification and registration (I&R) of all dogs and cats and the registration of all breeders. We also support the ban on the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops, and the improvements in breeding standards that aim to combat inbreeding and harmful breeding practices. These are long-overdue, necessary, measures that will help tackle illegal trade, hold breeders accountable and massively advance animal welfare.

We therefore regret the Report does not suggest these few, very simple steps that will actually help achieve the expressed objective of this future Regulation: to tackle the illegal pet trade, benefit the functioning of the internal market, and further animal welfare. Key elements are either missing or need to be strengthened. Excluding breeders from basic health and welfare duties will only sustain existing loopholes that unscrupulous breeders already exploit. Leaving hundreds of thousands of animals unprotected. Similarly, the draft Report shies away from making full use of the registration verification system suggested by the Commission for online sales - which is fully compatible with the Digital Services Act.

Moving forward, FOUR PAWS calls for the inclusion of the following key elements:

• Mandatory Identification and Registration for all dogs and cats. For dogs this is already in place in almost all Member States and is increasingly established for cats too. Without horizontal identification and registration of all dogs and cats, unregistered animals will keep finding their way to the market, and their breeders and sellers will remain untraceable.
• Mandatory registration of all breeders. No exceptions. A duty already enshrined in the Animal Health Law. A two-tiered system will allow backyard breeding to continue undeterred. This simple measure is instrumental for authorities to understand the breeding landscape.
• Full use of the system for verification of registrations in the online trade. Unless an automated system, fully compliant with the Digital Services Act, is in place to only allow publication of adverts of provenly registered animals, online platforms will be rife with untraceable, illegally bred and traded animals. Meanwhile, with just the leading marketplaces in 21 EU countries hosting over 9.199 dog ads daily, the fraud risk, reputational damage and burden for content moderators is real.

Georgia Diamantopoulou, Companion Animal Policy Coordinator of FOUR PAWS’ European Policy Office, said:

FOUR PAWS calls on the Members of the European Parliament to strengthen these provisions for substantial and lasting change. 

The time for half-measures is over.