Q: Marlene Mizzi (S&D, MT) - Killing of dogs in shelters in Romania (2015-05-27)

Can the Commission explain whether it has followed up the recommendations sent to the Romanian authorities in 2013 in order to highlight the importance of the World Organisation for Animal Health’s animal welfare standards?

A: Mr Andriukaitis on behalf of the Commission (2015-10-21)

The Honourable Member is invited to refer to the Commission's reply to Written Question E-006602/2014. Within the scope of a visit to the Romanian authorities in September 2015, Commissioner Andriukaitis highlighted the importance of animal welfare and recommended following the welfare standards of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

OIE has adopted an international standard for Stray Dog Population Control. The Commission is strongly supportive of the ongoing work on the OIE Animal Welfare Platform for Europe. This platform aims to improve the practical application of the standards through several measures between 2014 and 2016. In this context a workshop on stray dog management was held in June 2014 and 10 Balkan countries participated, including Romania. All countries agreed to fully apply the standard on Stray Dog Population control by 2025 and to develop roadmaps to ensure that steady progress is made towards this goal.

It should be noted that the standard highlights the important role of local government agencies in the enforcement of national legislation, the necessity for promoting responsible dog ownership and many other measures to regulate dog reproduction, capture, rehoming, transport, holding, housing and care criteria. However, it remains to each country to implement the standard.

The Commission is active in disseminating good practices on companion animal welfare through the ‘Carodog’ website, an informative platform promoting responsible ownership.

As regards the implementation of the 2014 rabies programmes in wild animals approved by the Commission, the spring vaccination campaign was not implemented whereas the autumn campaign was properly carried out. For 2015, the spring campaign was performed.