June 10, 2005

EU consumers support animal welfare improvement
 

A new EU survey on consumer attitudes supports the improvement of farm animal welfare and the need for better labelling.

Of 1,000 respondents polled from each EU-25 state, 74 percent believed that they can improve animal welfare through their shopping choices, while about 57 percent are willing to pay more for animal welfare-friendly food products.

The Eurobarometer opinion survey, carried out in Feb-Mar 2005, also showed that consumers polled were most concerned about the treatment of layer and broiler chickens, followed by pigs, dairy cows and calves.

Consumers were concerned that inadequate labelling made it difficult to identify animal-welfare friendly products, hindering proper decision making. About 32 percent of consumers polled could hardly identify such food products, the survey showed.

Consumers also generally believe that insufficient priority is given to animal welfare in their countries' agricultural policies, with only 7 percent believing it is given too much importance.

This survey apparently supports the Commission's attempts to legislate better welfare protection measures for farm animals.