A Comparative Analysis of Farmed Animal Protection Laws in the European Union and the United States

Abstract

Industrial animal agriculture is the predominant form of meat, dairy and egg production in the US, Europe and many other parts of the world. This food production system, which the US Environmental Protection Agency calls concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs, forces 80 billion farmed animals per year to live crowded together and in intensive confinement during the 99% of their lives in which they are being raised. If left unregulated, the agriculture industry treats these animals as if they are automatons whose basic needs and interests can be ignored. Starting in 1974, the European Union (EU) has passed five directives that set specific and measurable husbandry and housing requirements for farmed animals. The EU directives, while not perfect, offer the highest standards in the world for rearing farmed animals. The US, on the other hand, has no federal law that would establish minimum standards for how farmed animals are housed and treated, leaving such decisions to the industry that owns and raises those animals, and forcing American animal advocates to search for other legal avenues to increase protections for farmed animals. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the US and EU legal standards for raising farmed animals.