This morning, a giant pig appeared on the Schuman roundabout in Brussels. The gigantic sculpture, that is 4 meters high and 7 meters long, looks towards Berlaymont, because it has a message to send to the European Commission.

« Ode au Pig », this is the name of the sculpture, is the work of the Dutch artist Jantien Mook. Before arriving in Brussels, it had already been exhibited in 12 cities in the Netherlands.

The statue is part of the « Exit The Cages » campaign, organized by Gaia, an animal welfare organization. The aim of the campaign is to ask the European Commission to put an end to the cage farming system in Europe. This is the reason why the statue was placed in that strategic place. The sculpture also celebrates the success of the campaign, which has collected more than 1.5 million signatures in Europe. In Belgium, the petition has been signed by more than 90,000 people.

Gaia’s activists claim that the European Commission has the possibility to issue new directives in this area.  Michel Vandenbosch, Gaia’s president, states: “We needed a million signatures for our petition to be officially recognized by the Commission. According to the mandatory procedure, it must now address this issue. We hope it will be a big boost to end these terrible living conditions in a cage”.

In Europe, 300 million animals live in cages. The 170 organizations that support the action « Exit The Cages » claim their definitive ban. They hope that the new European Commission will listen and take this initiative seriously.

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A new pet cemetery will be installed at the end of the year in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, making it the only place where one will be allowed to bury a pet in Brussels.

The initiative was led by the Secretary of State for Animal Welfare Bianca Debaets (CD&V), and has recently received the backing of the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

The cemetery will have space for more than 70 animal coffins, in addition to a columbarium and a lawn dedicated to the dispersion of ashes, confirmed the office of the mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Benoît Cerexhe (CDH).

Initially, it will only be available to pets owned by inhabitants living in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, although it is possible that it might eventually be opened up to pets from other areas of the Brussels Region.

There is currently only one other pet cemetery in Brussels, in Ixelles, although the animals commemorated on its gravestones are not actually buried there.

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Two hybrid breeds, in particular, have been targeted: Bengal and Savannah cats. The Animal Welfare Council has determined them to be breeds that present particular problems of behavior, reproduction and genetics.

“The first generations of these hybrid breeds do not exhibit a behaviour adapted to life in captivity, which can generate many difficulties,” explained Bianca Debaets, the Secretary of State for Animal Welfare. “In addition, they present the problem of a lack of fertility and their gestation period is not the same as that of domestic cats. Also, during mating, the risk of them becoming extremely aggressive is very high.”

The second decision concerns Fold cats, including the Scottish and Highland breeds, who are famous for having peculiarly short ears that are folded forward.

“This congenital malformation causes significant pain and chronic arthritis,” said Ms Debaets. “To avoid this suffering, we have decided to ban the breeding, marketing and possession of these cats, in order to achieve their gradual extinction.”

At least one established veterinarian in Brussels, however, has contested the Council’s decision. “This is a minority problem compared to other issues relevant to animal welfare,” explained veterinarian Yvan Beck. “During my career I dealt with very few cats of these breeds, and those that I did deal with did not have any of these ‘bad’ characteristics.”

“It is true that Savannah cats are very independent, but I have never seen them exhibit any serious behavioural problems. And as for the Scottish Fold cats, there are almost none of them anymore anyway. Moreover, what are the owners of these cats supposed to do when the ban comes into force? Euthanize them? It’s absurd. I will never agree to euthanising any cat that is in good health.”

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In the current legislation, an animal is only perceived as an object, included in the category of property and immovables. But with the change introduced, animals will be recognized in the future as a specific group within the society, which will offer them a high degree of protection, at the legal level in particular, said on Friday the Secretary of State of Brussels, Bianca Debaets (CD & V), in charge of Animal Welfare.

For Mrs Debaets, at the initiative of the text adopted, « we are moving beyond the symbol stage. It will be important in the future to take into account the living and sensitive nature of animals when judging infringements in relation to animal welfare regulations. »

According to Mrs Debaets, only the Walloon Region has introduced a similar legislation. More broadly, at the federal level, the Senate is currently working on an amendment to the Constitution which stipulates « that the federal state and federated entities ensure the welfare of animals as sentient beings. »

« We are also inspired by countries like France, the Netherlands and New Zealand that are very advanced in this area. The ultimate goal is that the animal can finally benefit from the legal status corresponding to its biological character, » concluded Mrs Debaets.

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It turns out the cost is huge. Agriculture alone could account for a 1.5 degree temperature increase by 2050, making it impossible to reach the Paris Agreement commitments. There are a number of reasons for this: the Co2 intensity of agricultural practices (think tractors, energy intensity of fertilisers and phytosanitary products), the loss of soil Co2, but most importantly methane emissions from cattle and the relative inefficiency of producing meat. The intensification of livestock rearing also brings a host of problems for local communities – from respiratory problems to more serious environmental issues from the tons of urine and manure dumped in the surrounding environment.

This aerial photo of a feedlot shows a grid of cattle pens (brown) with roads for feed trucks (grey horizontal lines), and a huge lagoon of run-off urine and manure (green). Source: big picture beef

The animal breeds have been selected to maximise their output: a chicken will typically have lived less than 60 days before it ends on a plate (without having seen the sun) and this accelerated growth causes a range of health issues; cows have also been stretched to the limit, with milk output doubling from around 12 litres per day in the 1970s to 25 litres in 2012. For these production methods to be viable, the industry overuses antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease outbreaks in these unsanitary environments. This leads to an acceleration of the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria which is yet another cost not considered by the sector.

Reducing agriculture’s impact will also mean changing our habits: reducing the quantity of animal products we consume, favouring quality producers that respect animal welfare and accepting that slightly more expensive food is an inevitable consequence of an agricultural sector that trades lower production for higher animal and environmental welfare.

Another key point is to support organisations that work for better animal welfare: GAIA has a stellar record of over 25 years of campaigning and have successfully pushed legislation on a number of causes (against forced feeding, cages, fur…). While our personal choices might seem small, joining our efforts to such organisations truly makes us part of something bigger.

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« Delhaize does not tolerate any harm to animal welfare, » said Delhaize, who will increase existing controls and carry out additional checks at the other slaughterhouses with which it cooperates.

As for the Colruyt supermarkets, they decided to « suspend the orders and deliveries » from this slaughterhouse but did not stop definitively its collaboration. The chain prefers to wait for a while before taking a final decision.

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