Farmers Who Break Animal Welfare Law Could Lose Subsidies

The Icelandic Animal Welfare Association (IAWA) has recommended that farmers who break animal welfare laws be stripped of public subsidies, and that recommendation could be encoded in law.

RÚV reports that when a comprehensive law on animal welfare was first submitted, it defined forms of both animal abuse and neglect, recommending that those found in violation of these law be subject to fines. Additional measures of punitive action were recommended, but at the time the Farmers Association of Iceland recommended that fines be allowed to suffice.

IAWA has now submitted a recommendation that farmers who break animal welfare laws not only get fined, but are also denied tax-funded subsidies, pointing out that it hardly makes sense to give public funding to farmers found guilty of animal abuse. The Farmers Association of Iceland is now in agreement with this recommendation.

The committee in charge of handling this law, the Industrial Affairs Committee, also agrees with the recommendation. As such, establishing the measure in law may only be a matter of time.

As reported, Icelandic pig farms made headlines last year for deplorable conditions. Investigations conducted by the Icelandic Food And Veterinary Authority (MAST) have shown that there were pigs with pressure sores, caused by laying on the same spot for too long, at every farm they visited.