Document type : Poll conducted by Ifop for the Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis
Author: Ifop
Preview: For the fourth year in a row, Ifop and the Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis have explored French public opinion on a number of proposals to promote animal welfare. Once again, the study shows that concern for animal welfare is widespread and on the increase among members of the French public, who believe that politicians and institutions do not give sufficient weight to this issue. At a time when a new parliamentary bill on animal welfare is tabled for debate, the expectations of the French on this topic are far greater than the ambitions set out in the draft document.
The French are relatively harsh in their views on the level of concern for animal welfare shown by the government and public institutions.
Indeed, again this year, more than two thirds (69%) of French citizens believe that politicians do not do enough to protect animals. [...]With regard to the government, a large majority of French people (68%) agree that the government does not take sufficient account of animal protection sufficiently in its policies. [...]. These results not only show high public expectations for animal protection, they also demonstrate approval of the government's stated direction of travel. However, the executive must be careful not to disappoint these expectations, otherwise its actions to support animal welfare will be undermined.
Bans on the causes of animal suffering are still supported by a large majority of French people.
A majority of respondents supported all the pilot initiatives to limit animal suffering, showing an increase compared with previous surveys in almost all cases. We thus see a large majority of French people still in favour of bans on all animal experimentation (89%, +3 points compared with last year), intensive breeding (85%, +4), hunting with hounds (77%), bullfighting in France (75%), and the presence of wild animals in circuses (72%). Most are also in favour of banning dolphinariums (66%, -3), the sale of pets through classified ads (64%, +5), and even in pet shops (61%, +4). Answers on these points go far further than the measures envisaged in the Animal Welfare Bill.
Among the new measures proposed, responses on the compulsory sterilisation of pets are more nuanced, but the measure is still supported by a majority of the French public (57%). Another new measure, the proposal for licences for pet ownership (to reduce abandonment) saw massive support from respondents (84%), a measure that, yet again, is more far-reaching than those envisaged in the Animal Welfare Bill. [...]
Strong support for the various methods to improve conditions at slaughter
81% of respondents expressed themselves to be in favour of a shift in location from abattoirs to the farm itself f for the slaughter of farm animals, to be carried out by visiting professionals.
Not just the location but the conditions surrounding slaughter are also important in the eyes of the French public. In 2021, 84% of respondents agreed unequivocally that "the practice of slaughtering animals while they are fully conscious is uother small companion animalsceptable under any circumstances" [...]. The strength of these results, coupled with the 17 December 2020 ruling of the EUCJ, puts pressure on the authorities to legislate on the way that ritual slaughter is to be carried out.
Survey discussed in an article in Ouest France on 3 February 2022. Le bien-être animal, un thème électoral pour près de 70 % des Français
