84 percent of Czechs support ban on individual cages for farmed animals

84 percent of Czechs support a proposed ban on individual cages for farmed animals, according to a Eurobarometer survey, with 52 percent of Czechs saying that protecting the welfare of farmed animals is very important and a further 34 percent saying it is somewhat important. This is only slightly less than the European average - across the entire EU, 89 percent of people support the ban on individual cages and a total of 91 percent say it is either very or somewhat important to protect the welfare of farmed animals.

The NGO Compassion in World Farming said in a press release that despite this broad support among the population, the European Commission had failed to deliver promised revisions to EU animal welfare legislation. Back in 2018, citizens from seven European countries, one of which was Czechia, initiated the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative. This was signed by 1.4 million people and secured a commitment by the European Commission to follow through with a revision of current animal welfare legislation, which was supposed to be delivered in September. However, this week, the Commission again failed to deliver the promised proposal when it announced its planned work programme, after failing to meet the September deadline.