The European Union has for the first time ever enacted animal protection laws for cats and dogs.

On Tuesday (April 28th), the European Union adopted its first regional animal protection law covering the entire EU, including a ban on mutilating cats and dogs by performing operations such as ear cropping and tail docking.

According to data from the European Commission, there are 72 million dogs and 83 million cats in the 27 member states of the European Union. Previously, only regulations concerning health and medical requirements for travel within the EU were established.

The new regulations passed on Tuesday prohibit aggressive breeding methods and also require that cats and dogs kept as pets must be equipped with microchips. This is aimed at more effectively regulating the cat and dog market, which is worth over 1.3 billion euros, and helping to curb the relatively serious animal smuggling problems in some Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania.

The new regulations also prohibit inbreeding and deliberately highlighting certain traits that may affect the physical and mental welfare of the animals, such as short-legged breeding. Only when the genetic diversity of a certain breed is low can inbreeding be carried out.

The final legal text of the new regulation also prohibits the crossbreeding of domestic animals and wild species, as this can lead to animals developing undesirable behaviors that are unsuitable for domestication.

In addition, police dogs, military dogs and border patrol dogs can also be exempted from certain restrictions. For instance, the mandatory collars that training dogs must wear are not required.

EU lawmakers also attempted to ban the keeping and selling of cats and dogs in pet shops, but this was ultimately not included in the final text.