FECAVA is s strongly committed to the topic of the Welfare of pets including healthy breeding, fighting the illegal pet trade, and more.
FECAVA collaborates with various organizations and individuals to produce publications for clinicians and the general public. Please download them, use them and share them.
Many veterinarians are required to conduct clinical examinations on their patients without the presence of the owners due to numerous Covid restrictions.
Understandably, this can be stressful for both the animals and their owners. Without them, cats and dogs might become anxious and fearful.
The FECAVA and the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology (ESVCE) have created flyers to help owners and veterinarians make those visits more comfortable. These flyers include useful tips on how to approach animals and prepare them for a veterinary visit.
Belgian veterinarians have been offering their support in the process of choosing a healthy and suitable new family member as they were regularly seeing poorly socialized puppies with health problems. The project is called Pup4Life with the aim to encourage future owners to contact a veterinarian prior to buying or adopting a new dog.
A website with different information and tools for future owners has been set up as part of the project.
The owners can download printable checklists to find their ‘’type of dog’’ and a questionnaire to assess the trustworthiness of the breeder.
After they fill in the questionnaire, the new owners together with their vet, can make a decision from which breeder they want to purchase a new puppy.
Pup4Life project is supported by CEVA, Val d’Hony Verdifarm and the Province of Limburg.
The slogan came from the Dog Trust, the largest dog welfare charity in the UK responding to an increase of Google searches for »buy a puppy« by 120% after the lockdown. Later, the demand and prices for puppies rocketed in the UK. The Economist reports that families are looking for ways to entertain their children
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On June 5, 2020, the Italian officials near Udine seized 39 puppies, a Bengal cat, and hundred hamsters valued at around 60 thousand euros. They were transported from Eastern Europe for sales in Italy. At first glance, the documents seemed correct, but after the inspection, the animals appeared much younger than written in the documents,
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On April 21, the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture and the Eurogroup for Animals organized the online workshop on the illegal trade of pets »Illegal Pet Trade: Game Over«. Almost 100 participants from animal academia, NGOs, experts from European institutions including Ann Criel, FECAVA Honorary Secretary, and member of the FVE Animal Welfare Working Group, as
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In England on April 6, 2020 Lucy’s Law came into force. The new legislation presents a significant milestone to end low-welfare, high volume supply of puppies and kittens by banning their third-party commercial sale in England. Puppy farms are located across the UK, mostly depending on third-party sellers or ‘dealers’ who often smuggle from abroad
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