Processing of the EU dog and cat regulation in its final stages

The EU Regulation on the Welfare and Traceability of Dogs and Cats aims, among other things, to ensure that the breeding, sale and treatment of dogs and cats meet harmonized welfare requirements. The regulation will strengthen the identification and registration of dogs and cats so that puppy mills and illegal imports can be tackled more effectively. The goal is also to create an EU-wide, more harmonized system for tracking animals’ movement and origin.

The regulation is intended to enter into force in 2028

The content of the regulatory proposal published in December 2023 has been amended during the drafting process. The substance of the regulation has already largely been decided in joint negotiations between the EU institutions and in the European Parliament vote last June. The regulation is now at a late stage, and the focus of the review is increasingly shifting to political discussions and the forthcoming national implementation.

Based on the regulation, the European Commission will prepare more detailed guidelines on which exaggerated traits are prohibited in breeding, and which animals displaying such exaggerated traits may not be brought to shows, trials and competitions. It is problematic that these guidelines were not included in the regulation proposal itself and will not be subject more broadly to the EU decision-making process.

You can read more about the regulation and its progress on the European Commission’s website. Once adopted, the regulation will start to apply two years after its adoption. An exception applies to those specific provisions for which a transitional period has been laid down.

The Finnish Kennel Club has maintained close dialogue with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which prepared Finland’s position on the regulation, has held close dialogue with the Finnish Kennel Club on what should be acknowledged in the regulation from the perspective of Finnish dog sports and dog breeding.

- During spring 2024, the Ministry approached us with several questions, and we also took part in meetings where issues related to the regulation were reviewed, says Department Head Kaisa Gold from the Kennel Club’s office.

At the time, we noted that many of the provisions proposed in the regulation are good. It is important to intervene more strongly in puppy mills and dog smuggling. The measures must be sufficiently effective, and efficient information exchange between different EU countries is important.

We also noted that the regulation must apply to all dog breeding. If regulation and oversight target only organized dog breeding, it places dog breeders within the EU in an unequal position. In practice, dog breeding is easiest to monitor within organized activities.

Our statements have had an impact

From a national perspective, we highlighted that Finland has a lot of small-scale breeding. Here, dogs live in homes rather than in large kennel facilities. We also pointed out that someone other than a veterinarian should be allowed to apply an identification mark to a dog. In Finland, we have a functioning system for this under the Kennel Club, and the Dutch Kennel Club has a similar one. This option was later added to the regulation proposal.

We also pointed out that, especially in northern Finland, distances are long, and therefore it would be important that in a critical situation—such as when a dog is injured while hunting in the forest or in a traffic accident, or if a breeder has sick puppies—someone other than a veterinarian should be allowed to humanely euthanize the dog. This option was also later included in the regulation proposal.

We commented that some of the requirements concerning kennel facilities are unrealistic in our northern dog culture. The requirements for kennel facilities were adjusted slightly, but not in the way that would be the best solution for us. In Finland, litters are most often raised in the breeder’s home, not in dedicated kennel facilities, where space requirements are entirely different from home-based breeding.

We also commented that already at the proposal stage it should be clear how the definitions related to prohibited breeding will be made and how they will be applied in practice when dogs participate in trials and competitions. We stated that breed bans are not a workable solution, and that national kennel clubs must be consulted when these guidelines are drafted.

A challenge in influencing the proposal has been obtaining sufficient information on what changes have been made to it at the different stages of the legislative process.

We have sought to influence the regulation also through international cooperation

- The Finnish Kennel Club has also sought to influence the forthcoming regulation through cooperation among European kennel clubs. We have raised the issue in several meetings of the eight FCI countries and in PKU meetings, says the Kennel Club’s Executive Director Pirjo Onza.

Drafting fully aligned joint positions is difficult, as dog cultures differ across EU countries. In Finland, more than 70% of the dog population is registered with the Kennel Club, while in many EU countries the situation is different. Veterinary and other resources also vary. In countries with a lot of large-scale breeding, rules affecting small breeders or kennel facilities may not necessarily be a problem. The challenges posed by the northern climate do not apply to most EU countries.

Among the kennel clubs of the eight FCI countries, there is a shared view that the regulation steers dog breeding too much toward large commercial units. There is also agreement that the regulation must apply to all breeding, not only organized dog breeding.

In October 2025, we published the Finnish Kennel Club’s view on the forthcoming EU regulation. We communicated this message to the public and to Finnish EU decision-makers. In our statement, we expressed concern that the pressure to harmonize now steers efforts to address problems through measures that do not best promote the welfare of the overall dog population and do not take into account cultural and local differences within the EU.

At that stage, the text still included a provision under which the regulation would not apply to breeders who breed only one litter per household within 18 months, if they do not advertise the litter for sale. We questioned this wording, which from a Finnish perspective is poor. The proposal subsequently changed in this respect.

The proposed regulation is expected to go to a vote in the European Parliament in late April

The proposal has been discussed early this year in the European Parliament’s AGRI Committee responsible for agriculture and forestry matters, and according to current information it is set to go to a vote in the European Parliament on 26 April. Parliament will vote only on whether to approve or reject the final text now brought forward. The European Commission’s goal is to have the proposal adopted by the summer. The latest version of the text can be read here.

In January, ahead of the AGRI Committee meeting, we again contacted Finnish EU decision-makers and presented the Kennel Club’s views. We emphasized that some of the provisions concerning breeding work—such as rules on breeders’ facilities—cannot be applied sensibly in Finnish conditions.

We raised our concern about how prohibited extreme traits will be defined. External characteristics alone do not indicate a dog’s health. A dog’s clinical health status must be demonstrable through comprehensive health examinations.

We also emphasized that in Finland more than 25,300 different trials, competitions or dog shows are organized every year. If dogs with extreme traits must be excluded from all these events, a major practical effort lies ahead. It has not been decided who will define these extreme traits in practice and how dogs will be excluded from events. In our view, the regulation should give Member States the opportunity to specify more precisely at national level what kinds and what size of dog events this provision applies to.

On 26 February, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry organized a webinar on the forthcoming EU regulation. The webinar also included a presentation from the Kennel Club, in which Kaisa Gold presented our views.

Finland’s forthcoming breeding decree may in part serve as a model for the EU’s guidelines on prohibited exaggerated traits

The European Commission’s guidelines on exaggerated traits in dogs are intended to enter into force for appearance-related traits (phenotype) around mid-2030, and for genetic characteristics (genotype) in 2036.

In several contexts, we have raised concern that the European Commission has been given sole authority to decide on prohibited phenotypes and genotypes. In this work, the experience and evidence of EU countries’ kennel clubs on how exaggerated traits can be avoided in dog breeding must be heard. Finland is among the leading countries in dog breeding, and we have a great deal of useful information that we can share. We closely follow research related to dog health and breeding so that we can make increasingly effective use of new DNA tests and screening examinations. With these studies, we can more effectively prevent diseases from being inherited by future generations of dogs.

In Finland, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is currently preparing a breeding decree based on the Animal Welfare Act. Last spring, the Ministry set up a working group to support this work. The group’s task is to prepare provisions on dog breeding for the national draft decree. The working group, whose term ends in October this year, includes two representatives from the Kennel Club. The working group also includes representation from the Finnish Dog Breeders Association SuKoKa.

The Finnish Kennel Club’s objective in the working group is that the limits set for dog breeding are realistic and that the provisions are so clear that they can be implemented in all dog breeding. Breeding outside organized dog activities must also be able to be monitored effectively. If restrictions are tightened too much, some of dog breeding will move outside organized dog activities.

More information about the regulation on the European Commission’s website

The regulation in it's latest form 

Statement of the Finnish Kennel Club in October 2025