EU: public opinion on animal welfare

The Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety consulted European public opinion to establish current views on animal welfare. The key objectives of this survey are:

• Understanding the relationship between Europeans and animal welfare.
• Assessing European awareness and perceived importance of key elements of the animal welfare strategy.
• Determining European views on availability and recognition of products sourced from animal welfare-friendly production systems.

Some results:

• General understanding of animal welfare: close to half of Europeans (46%) understand animal welfare to ‘refer to the duty to respect all animals’, whilst slightly less (40%) mention animal welfare ‘concerns the way farmed animals are treated, providing them with a better quality of life’. Interestingly, the proportion of citizens who understand animal welfare as ‘going beyond animal protection’ (18%) is very close to those who actually mention that it is ‘the same as animal protection’ (17%). Moreover, a similar proportion of respondents answer that animal welfare ‘contributes to better quality animal products’ (17%).
• The importance of protecting the welfare of farmed animals: an absolute majority of Europeans (94%) are of the view it is important to protect the welfare of farmed animals. More than half of respondents (57%) consider it to be “very important” and 37% to be “somewhat important” to protect the welfare of farmed animals.
• The relevance of better protecting the welfare of farmed animals: 82% believe that the welfare of farmed animals should be better protected than it is now. More than two in five Europeans (44%) hold a stronger view, responding with “yes, certainly”.
• Communication and education: the absolute majority of Europeans (87%) consider information campaigns on animal welfare to be a good way to influence the attitudes of the younger generation towards animals (48% “certainly” and 39% “probably”).
• Information about treatment conditions: almost two thirds of Europeans (64%) indicated they would like to have more information about the conditions under which farmed animals are treated in their country.
• International animal welfare standards: Europeans are more likely to strongly agree ‘imported products from outside the EU should respect the same animal welfare standards as those applied in the EU’ (93%), with almost two thirds of respondents (62%) who “totally agree” with the statement, and a further 31% who “tend to agree”. Nine out of ten respondents (90%) agree ‘it is important to establish animal welfare standards that are recognised across the world’. A similar proportion of EU citizens (89%) agree the ‘EU should do more to promote a greater awareness of animal welfare internationally’.
• Respecting EU standards: the absolute majority of EU citizens (54%) hold the view that the best method is via certifications provided by the EU. A country level analysis shows that certification by the EU is the lead method mentioned across all Member States. In 16 countries, the absolute majority of respondents support this method.
• Willingness to pay a premium for animal welfare friendly products: overall, 59% of EU citizens mentioned they would be prepared to pay more. More specifically, more than a third (35%) are prepared to pay up to 5% more and more than one in ten (16%) are prepared to pay 6% to 10% more for products sourced from animal welfare-friendly production systems. Very small percentages of Europeans are ready to pay 11%-20% more (5%) or more than 20% (3% of respondents). However, more than a third of EU citizens (35%) are not ready to pay more and a small percentage mentioned spontaneously (4%) that it depended on the price of the product. Respondents in Sweden (93%), Luxembourg (86%) and the Netherlands (85%) are more likely to be ready to pay more for products.
• Interest in identifying labels for animal welfare friendly products: more than half of EU citizens (52%) look for these identifying labels when buying products. By contrast, 37% of respondents never or very rarely look for the identifying labels.
• Current choice of animal welfare friendly products in shops: a relative majority of Europeans (47%, +9 percentage points) do not believe there is currently a sufficient choice of animal welfare friendly food products in shops and supermarkets.