Science and animal welfare in France and European Union: Rules,constraints, achievements

The welfare of food-producing animals is a focus of public debate in Europe. Political institutions, have introduced regulations based on scientific data. Meanwhile, the practices of producers and transformers were modified. Implementation of care practices is added to the goal of sustainable basic health of animals. Nevertheless urban consumers still look for the “naturalness” of living animals. A brief historical perspective introduces the building process of European regulations. A short list of Directories and Recommendations provides a clue on the complexity of resulting construct. Now, this complexity is calling for simplification of rules while practices should be compatible with professional constraints. Few selected examples are brought to illustrate how the concepts initially studied by scientists (welfare, pain, stress, “consciousness”/awareness) were integrated in regulations and implemented by producers and meat industry in order to simultaneously maintain the requirements for high quality and security standards. At the same time, free trade market constraints introduced new distortions, in particular those linked to the world demand for proteins. Indeed, the controversy about animal welfare, initially brought on ethical grounds, became a case for ongoing adjustements of EU policy, requesting to combine scientific knowledge on animals, consequent evolution in the representation of animals by urban consumers with the challenge of adaptation and implemention of regulations.