Thought this was quite an encouraging response by email from Graham Watson MEP - and a lot better than some of the others I got (ie from Giles Chichester) Sir Graham Watson (Casework) [email protected] Mar 28 (2 days ago) to me Dear Jane Schofield Thank you for your recent email regarding the mistreatment of dogs in Romania. This kind of cruelty is outrageous regardless of where it is perpetrated. I don’t deny that more work is needed to see standards of animal welfare rise in the Balkans. Nonetheless Romania’s membership of the European Union has left to it introducing new legislation in a wide range of fields and means higher standards, which are common across the continent, are now applicable in Romania and includes new rules that improve the welfare of animals including pigs, laying hens, chickens reared for meat and calves, as well as more general regulation covering farm animals. At the end of last year, there was a meeting in Brussels on the welfare of cats and dogs which involved the Commission and a variety of stakeholders including national representatives and animal welfare organisations. Ahead of the meeting I spoke with a representative of the RSPCA and it’s worth me highlighting that, at the European level, the RSPCA has joined forces with a number of similar organisations, and they make up the “Eurogroup for Animals” and they were present at the meeting. One of the problems we have in places, such as Romania, is a lack of similar organisations which can both work with communities and ensure welfare laws are enforced and hold governments to account. I hope that, via the Eurogroup, we can get the organisational footprint on the ground as it has been invaluable in places like the UK. Whilst Romania has certainly made some strides in the right direction, there are shortcomings and I hope, with pressure, we can get further movement in the right direction and end such despicable mistreatment. Yours sincerely Sir Graham Watson MEP Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar The Liberty, Old Kelways, Langport TA10 9SJ grahamwatsonmep.org.uk Twitter: @grahamwatsonmep The European Elections are on 22 May 2014
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:26:38 +0000
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