Citizen initiative to ban breeding of extreme-featured pets reaches parliament

A citizen initiative calling for a ban on breeding dogs and cats with extreme physical traits will be considered by Finland’s Parliament, Yle reported. The initiative has collected the required 50,000 statements of support.

It aims to prevent the breeding of cats and dogs whose sought-after extreme features cause demonstrable pain, illness or impaired functioning. Examples include extremely short muzzles, excessive skin folds and unusually small or large body size.

According to the initiative’s authors, current breeding choices are guided by appearance and breed standards rather than the animals’ health.