Document type Answer to question 15269 published on the website of the FrenchNational Assembly
Authors: question: Fabrice Brun (Les Républicains - Ardèche). Answer: Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.
Question : Mr. Fabrice Brun draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty to the matter of animal welfare and, in particular, to the fight against pet abuse and abandonment. According to the French Reference Centre for Animal Welfare , over 100,000 dogs, cats, new pets and horses are abandoned every year in France. Since 2015, the Civil Code has defined animals as "living beings endowed with sentience", and acts of abuse are punishable by law and are considered in the Penal Code to be acts of cruelty. Despite the adoption of the Animal Abuse and Abandonment Act in 2021, the number of abandoned pets has not fallen. On the contrary, the summer of 2023 saw a new record number of abandonments, reaching 16,000 over this period alone, according to the French SPA. Being strongly aware of this issue, the SPA tabled a bill that went further than that adopted by the French Parliament. It provided for stronger penalties for cases of violence, abuse and abandonment with regard to animals, and proposed that those found guilty of violence should be banned from owning animals. Last, it proposed that pet identification procedures should be strengthened through systematic microchipping. In view of these observations, he calls on the Ministry to conduct a detailed assessment of the improvements brought about by the law on animal abandonment, and to state what concrete measures the government plans to take to reduce animal abandonment and encourage animal welfare.
Answer: Reducing abandonment is a priority objective in the fight against pet abuse. A plan to combat pet abandonment was launched in December 2020. Numerous actions have been undertaken in recent years, including changes to the legislative and regulatory framework following the adoption of Law no. 2021-1539 of November 30, 2021 to combat animal abuse and strengthen the bond between animals and humans. The adoption of this law has already made it possible to impose tougher penalties for abandonment or any other act of animal abuse .Since then, three implementing decrees have been published. Decree no. 2022-1012 of July 18, 2022 on the protection of companion animals and equidae against abuse sets out the terms and conditions for the publication of online sales advertisements and the monitoring procedures in force since July 1 2023 concerning domestic carnivores. In addition to these controls, the content of mandatory awareness-raising messages to be included in advertisements is to be specified by decree. The purpose of this measure is to restrict trafficking in dogs and cats, along with ill-considered acquisitions based on a simple advert online. The decree also specifies the procedures for implementing the system of certificates of commitment and knowledge that must be requested from all new pet buyers since October 1, 2022, and from all equine owners since December 31, 2022. These legislative and regulatory advances are significant, and form part of a larger scheme implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and financed through the France Relance plan. A total of 35 million euros (M€) has been earmarked for the fight against abandonment, by improving the conditions in which animals are held and by supporting sterilization campaigns. Over 500 projects have received funding across France. 30 million was allocated directly to animal protection associations that take in abandoned animals, to enable them to expand or renovate their shelters, or to conduct sterilization campaigns for stray cats and dogs, in partnership with the municipal authorities. The care of animals belonging to the destitute or homeless is also funded to encourage veterinary care for these animals and, more specifically, to encourage sterilization, the first step in the prevention of the abandonment of unwanted young animals. In addition, to optimize the work of animal protection associations, aid has been allocated to national associations entrusted by the Ministry of Agriculture with the task of training and awareness raising for local associations. Further, to complement these efforts, a further €1m has been earmarked to support animal protection shelters and associations under the 2023 and 2024 Finance Acts. Last, the Finance Act for 2024 makes provision for the allocation of 3 M€ to local authorities to help them pay for the sterilization of stray and domestic cats. In the absence of reliable data on abandonment and due to a lack of knowledge of the circumstances that can lead to the abandonment of an animal, the first Observatory for the Protection of Domestic Carnivores (OCAD) was set up in 2021, bringing together on its steering committee all those involved in the pet sector, both associations and professionals, scientists, and national and local officers and representatives. OCAD's mission is to make recommendations on public policy and it has already launched an initial project to collect and analyze information to characterise and define abandonment. Last, as the summer period is marked by a sharp rise in pet abandonment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty launched, for the third year running, an awareness-raising campaign to prevent abandonment during the summer of 2023.
