Q: Ivan Jakovčić (ALDE, HR) and Jozo Radoš (ALDE, HR) - Killing of animals in shelters (2017-07-13)

Under the current Croatian Animal Welfare Act (Article 57(4)) animals housed in shelters may be killed after they have been in the shelter for 60 days. Every year, therefore, a great many healthy animals in Croatian shelters are killed. Croatia does also have ‘no kill’ shelters, but there are only six, very few, given the number of shelters overall. Far from being confined to Croatia, this problem exists in other Member States as well, whose laws differ only in terms of the time lag allowed before an animal may be killed.

Has the Commission taken steps, or does it intend to do so, in order to reduce the unnecessary killing of healthy animals?

A: Mr Andriukaitis on behalf of the Commission (2017-08-21)

As the Commission pointed out in its answer to Written Question E-004111/2016, the welfare of stray animals as well as the management of kennels, is not governed by EU rules and these matters remain under the sole competence of the Member States.

In light of the above, the Commission is not considering taking initiatives in this area.