Animal Abandonment in Europe: A Focus on the French Case

Across Europe, the summer exodus to the sea, the mountains or the countryside brings a rise in the number of pets abandoned every year. Each summer, more and more dogs and cats are left by the roadside. According to National Geographic, France holds the unenviable European record: the 30 Millions d’Amis Foundation and the Société protectrice des animaux (SPA), France’s main animal welfare charity, put the figure at around 100,000 animals a year, almost 60,000 of them during the summer holidays alone¹​.

Abandonments jumped by around 25% in 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic receded. During the lockdowns, many people had taken on a pet on impulse, to keep themselves busy or to have a reason to go out: walking the dog was one of the reasons accepted on the travel exemption form. Once life returned to “normal”, shaped by the demands of work, many French people found that they did not have enough time for their animal.

Abandoning a pet is nonetheless a criminal offence in France. Article 521-1 of the Criminal Code treats it as an act of cruelty, punishable by three years in prison and a €45,000 fine, rising to five years and €75,000 when the animal dies²​. EU law, by contrast, contains no regulation or directive that expressly prohibits abandonment: the ban comes from Council of Europe law, as we will see below. EU law has nevertheless moved a long way over the past decade.

The legal status of animals has also changed in France. Until 2015, the Civil Code classed them as “movable property” (Article 528) or “immovables by destination” (Article 524). Law No. 2015-177 of 16 February 2015 created Article 515-14, which defines animals as “living beings endowed with sentience”. The text recognises their sentience without changing their legal regime: the same article specifies that, subject to the laws that protect them, animals remain governed by the rules on property³​.

The figures from France’s neighbours are just as striking. In Spain, shelters took in 292,018 dogs and cats in 2024, more than 33 animals an hour and one of the highest levels of the decade⁴​. In Germany, according to PETA, up to 80,000 dogs, cats, rabbits, exotic animals and other pets are abandoned every summer at motorway service areas, at the end of isolated country lanes or in forests. Founded at the end of 1993, PETA Deutschland is the country’s largest animal protection organisation, and the PETA network claims more than 10.4 million supporters worldwide⁵​.

In the United Kingdom, abandonments are rising despite legislative progress and awareness campaigns. According to data from the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) reported by The Guardian, they rose by almost 25% in England and Wales between 2024 and 2025, the sharpest increase for at least five years⁶​. The cost of living is a major factor: many Britons fear they can no longer cover both their own expenses and their pet’s vet bills.

How is animal welfare regulated in Europe?

Two legal orders coexist: the conventions of the Council of Europe, which apply only to the states that have ratified them, and European Union law, which applies directly in all twenty-seven Member States.

Signed in 1987 under the auspices of the Council of Europe and in force since 1992, the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals is one of the first texts devoted to the legal protection of animals in Europe⁷​. It binds only the states that have ratified it; France did so only in 2003. The treaty defines what a pet animal is and sets the principles governing its keeping, its trade and its use in shows or competitions. It prohibits selling a pet animal to anyone under 16 without their parents’ consent and provides for measures to reduce the number of stray animals. Article 10 bans surgical operations performed for non-curative purposes, such as declawing, removing the vocal cords, or docking ears or tails. Finally, Article 3 lays down the basic principles of animal welfare, including the ban on abandonment:

“Nobody shall cause a pet animal unnecessary pain, suffering or distress. Nobody shall abandon a pet animal.”

EU law protects animal welfare too. Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) recognises animals as sentient beings whose welfare must be paid full regard: all EU legislation in this field rests on this provision. For farm animals, the EU also relies on the European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes, another Council of Europe text, which entered into force in 1978 and was approved by the European Community the same year. These rules draw on the principle of the “five freedoms”, formalised in 1979 by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council in the wake of the 1965 Brambell report, and since taken up by EU law and by international organisations⁸​:

• freedom from hunger and thirst;
• freedom from discomfort;
• freedom from pain, injury and disease;
• freedom to express normal behaviour;
• freedom from fear and distress.

When citizens move European law forward

Several recent advances in European law owe a great deal to European citizens’ initiatives (ECIs). An initiative that gathers one million verified signatures, with a minimum reached in at least seven Member States, obliges the European Commission to respond publicly. Three ECIs on animals have crossed that threshold.

Submitted in October 2020, the “End the Cage Age” initiative had gathered 1,397,113 verified signatures across eighteen Member States. It was the first successful ECI on the welfare of farm animals⁹​. On 30 June 2021, the Commission committed to presenting, by the end of 2023, a legislative proposal to phase out and then ban cages for the species concerned. It did not keep to that timetable: at the end of 2025, the proposal had still not been tabled, drawing sharp criticism from several animal protection organisations¹⁰​. The Commission also planned to adapt the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help farmers modernise their facilities. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), for its part, was asked to assess the risks that cages pose to the welfare of the species concerned: pigs, laying hens, calves, rabbits, ducks, geese…

In 2023, the “Fur Free Europe” ECI gathered 1,502,319 verified signatures. It called for a ban on “the keeping and killing of animals for the sole or main purpose of fur production” and on “the placing of farmed animal fur, and products containing such fur, on the EU market”. The Commission referred the matter to EFSA, whose scientific opinion, published on 30 July 2025, covers the American mink, the red fox, the Arctic fox, the raccoon dog and the chinchilla. It bears out the criticism levelled at these farms: in all species, EFSA identified restricted movement, the inability to explore or forage, and sensory under- and overstimulation as welfare consequences. The Authority concludes that, in current systems, these consequences can be neither prevented nor substantially mitigated¹¹​.

In the EU, the sale of cat and dog fur has been banned since 2007 (Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007). In France, the law of 30 November 2021 against animal cruelty toughened the penalties for mistreating domestic animals. It also bans “farms for American mink and animals of other non-domestic species bred exclusively for fur production”, and is gradually ending the keeping of wild animals in travelling circuses and dolphinariums.

Animal testing

The EU also regulates the use of animals for scientific purposes, whether to develop medicines or to assess food additives and chemical substances. Directive 2010/63/EU rests on the principle of the “three Rs”:

• Replace: use other methods wherever possible
• Reduce: use fewer animals for the same research
• Refine: minimise pain and suffering

For cosmetics, the EU has gone as far as an outright ban. Animal testing has been prohibited for finished products since 2004 and for ingredients since 2009; since 2013, it has also been illegal to sell in the EU any cosmetic tested on animals elsewhere in the world¹²​. The measure carries real weight: Europe is the world’s largest cosmetics market, a sector that employs two million people there¹³​. In a 2018 resolution, the European Parliament called for a worldwide ban on such testing, which 80% of countries still allow. It wants to pursue the issue at the United Nations and to ensure that neither trade agreements nor World Trade Organization (WTO) rules weaken the EU’s bans.

The “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe without Animal Testing” citizens’ initiative, launched in 2021, was submitted in January 2023 with 1,217,916 verified signatures¹⁴​. The Commission followed it up on 1 June 2026 by adopting a roadmap to phase out animal testing in chemical safety assessments¹⁵​.

Cats and dogs: the first European rules

On 28 April 2026, MEPs adopted, by 558 votes to 35 with 52 abstentions, the very first EU-wide minimum standards for the protection of cats and dogs¹⁶​. The text follows the provisional political agreement reached with the Council on 26 November 2025; the Member States in turn formally adopted it on 22 May 2026¹⁷​ ¹⁸​.

The regulation bans several practices regarded as cruel. Mutilations carried out without medical grounds (docking tails or ears, removing vocal cords) are prohibited. It also outlaws breeding animals with extreme physical traits that harm their health, such as brachycephaly: the exaggeratedly flat muzzle found in some lines of bulldogs and pugs, which causes severe breathing problems¹⁹​. Prong and electric collars are banned as well, with limited exceptions, notably for dogs working with the police, the armed forces and customs.

The text also harmonises the conditions for breeding, keeping and selling animals across the EU, and tackles illegal trafficking. The trade in cats and dogs is worth €1.3 billion a year in the EU, and 60% of owners buy their animal online, which often leaves its origin and state of health in the dark. According to a European Commission study, the illegal trade comes mainly from two Member States, Romania and Hungary, and from third countries such as Russia, Belarus, Serbia and Turkey²⁰​.

Until now, each Member State applied its own rules, often very different from those of its neighbours. The regulation now requires every cat and dog in the EU to be microchipped and registered; private owners have ten years to comply for dogs and fifteen years for cats. National databases will be accessible to other Member States, which should make it possible to detect illegal movements.

Conclusion

Animals and their welfare are protected in Europe by a body of texts drawn partly from the Council of Europe and partly from the European Union. Yet the gap between the rules and reality is sometimes considerable, whether for pets, farm animals or wildlife. Citizens’ initiatives and awareness campaigns have helped to reduce mistreatment and acts of cruelty. The first common rules on the breeding, import and traceability of cats and dogs mark a milestone in this respect: for the first time, the EU itself sets a baseline of protection for companion animals. It remains to be seen whether the Commission will finally keep its promise on cages.