Danish Member makes formal complaint to European Commission about tail docking

Posted on 06/03/2012

Danish Member Organisation Dyrenes Beskyttelse, represented by Director Britta Riis, handed over personally last week a formal complaint to Harry Vassallo, member of the cabinet of European Commissioner for Health and Consumers John Dalli. The complaint concerned the illegal practice of tail docking carried out on pigs in Danish farms, which has sadly become routine in the country as 99% of all pigs are subjected to this unnecessary and painful surgery, only intended to adapt them to intensive production systems.

The decision to appeal to European institutions rather than national is the result of a series of failures with the latter, more especially with the Danish Ministries of Justice and Agriculture. The organisation deplores the fact that nothing has been done in Denmark to stop this illegal practice and a substantial part of farmers as a result made the choice to put themselves above the law, which is clearly unacceptable.

Dyrenes Beskyttelse hopes it will send a strong message to the industry that the Danish and European law applies to them as well. The organisation also wishes that this action will set an example for other national organisations in Europe facing similar challenges.

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