“A future without cages is possible, if politics and the associations commit to working together to make that future a reality”: these were the opening words of Senator Stefano Patuanelli (M5S), organiser of the conference “Towards cage-free agriculture: science, ethics and policies for the transition”, held on Tuesday 10 June in the Sala Caduti di Nassiriya at the Senate, attended by politicians from both majority and opposition parties and by representatives of the organisations that make up the Italian End The Cage Age coalition – Animal Equality Italia, Animal Law Italia, CIWF Italia, ENPA, Essere Animali, Humane World for Animals Italia, LAV, Legambiente and LNDC Animal Protection.
Patuanelli firmly acknowledged a shift in society’s expectations, as well as in the scientific evidence concerning how human beings perceive animals: “I believe there is room to accelerate this transition towards humanity’s capacity to respect every living being”. To achieve this goal, he committed to drafting, within a short time, a bill to establish a national fund for the transition of Italian businesses to a cage-free farming system.
Chiara Caprio, Head of Media and Institutional Relations at Essere Animali, highlighted the growing sensitivity and awareness of Italian citizens with regard to animal welfare.
According to data from the Eurobarometer 2023 – the first Eurobarometer devoted to animal rights – Italians prove to be highly sensitive to animal welfare and to the urgency of moving to a cage-free farming system: overall, more than 90% of respondents firmly support a ban on cage farming; furthermore, 88% call for stronger protections for farmed animals, and as many as 91% oppose routine procedures within today’s farming system that are liable to cause animals severe suffering, such as the tail docking of pigs.
In 2024, Essere Animali commissioned a survey from YouTrend, which found that 85% of citizens are loudly calling on politicians and institutions to do more to guarantee better protections for animals; in addition, a survey commissioned from YouGov in 2023 shows that 80% are willing to pay more for products displaying higher standards on the label: 50% are even prepared to spend a third more.
Bianca Boldrini of LAV pointed out the utter inadequacy of today’s farming practices in guaranteeing acceptable living conditions on European livestock farms, despite the fact that Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union recognises animals as sentient beings and that the Italian State enshrined them in the Constitution in March 2022 through a reform of Article 9.
“The standard practices of the livestock industry constitute a systemic, codified cruelty, since the current legislation is obsolete and permits cruel and invasive practices, such as the deprivation of food and water during transport, as well as the beak trimming of chickens or the tail docking of pigs, carried out to prevent cannibalism among individuals caused by the conditions of stress and suffering in which they live every day. Cages themselves are a cruel practice: calves in pens, torn from their mothers just days after birth; laying hens in so-called enriched cages, where they can neither spread their wings nor dust-bathe; sows in gestation crates so narrow that they are unable to care for their young, whom they even risk crushing under the weight of their bodies with every single movement. Mistreatment is intrinsic to today’s farming model”.
Senators Michaela Biancofiore (Noi Moderati) and Simona Malpezzi (PD), among others, recognised the crucial importance of this event in showing the whole Parliament, clearly and unequivocally, the depth of an issue as decisive for rethinking the relationship between human and non-human animals as that of the necessary ban on cages in livestock farms. Simona Malpezzi reiterated that she has already submitted a request to the Chair of the European Union Policies Committee, of which she is a member, to launch a fact-finding inquiry into the issue of cages, so as to make parliamentarians more aware of the needless and unjustified suffering caused by the use of cages on livestock farms: informing anyone who has never examined the subject in depth about the physical and psychological consequences of keeping animals in cages will help secure a swifter success for the bill promised by their colleague Patuanelli.
Animal Law Italia trusts that the event held at the Senate on Tuesday 10 June will play a crucial role in the political agenda of the coming months. The support shown by politicians from across the political spectrum for the bill aimed at eliminating cages is the first step towards a systemic rethinking of the relationship between humans and animals that will inexorably gain ground in the near future.