Creating pet friendly country

Conference on companion animal welfare gathers experts from EU.

The conference on the welfare of dogs and cats in the EU took place on October 28 in the Charlemagne building of  European Comission, Brussels.

Representatives from the EU member states gathered to attend the forum on animal welfare.

The topic of conference mentions the welfare of dogs and cats but in reality presentations and discussions touched much wider problem – the welfare of companion animals in general, it‘s influence to society and economical aspects.

The conference was organised by European Comission in a co-operation with Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Also, animal welfare organizations “Vier Pfoten International”, “Eurogroup for Animals” as well as Federation of Veterinarians of Europe helped in a process of organization.

The president of Lithuanian Cynological Society Ramune Kazlauskaite together with project manager Kriste Sedleviciute attended the conference and represented their organization.

Professor James Serpell from University of Pennsylvania the USA presented plenary speech on the topic “How Social Trends affect companion animal ownership?”.

He talked about social trends and how they’ve changed during last decade, the impact of urbanization on companion animal environment and ownership.

The Lithuanian animal welfare problems were presented by Kristina Stakyte, the representative of State Food and Veterinary Service. She presented the new Lithuanian approach to companion animal protection in Lithuania.

The next day, October 29, was dedicated to workshops on three topics: dogs and cats breeding, dogs and cats trade and dogs and cats identification and registration. One of them, dogs and cats breeding, was coordinated by R. Kazlauskaite.

The goal of workshops was to discuss present situation, identify problems and suggest ideas/solutions for the EU as legislative body.