Netherlands working to ban flat-nosed dogs, folded-ear cats to prevent animal suffering

The Netherlands is taking “far-reaching steps” towards becoming a country where “no pet has to suffer from its appearance,” Minister Piet Adema of Culture, Nature, and Food Quality announced on Friday. He is working on two bans - a ban on owning animals with harmful external characteristics, such as a cat with folded ears or a dog with a short snout. The second ban is on showing these in advertisements, for example.

While features like folded ears or a short snout may look cute, they can cause life-long suffering for the animal. Short-snouted dogs, for example, almost always have trouble breathing. Today, the Netherlands will start working towards stopping this suffering, starting with dogs and cats, Adema said.

“This subject affects me not only as a Minister but also as a person. We make life miserable for innocent animals purely because we think they are beautiful and cute. That is why today we are taking a big step towards a Netherlands where no pet has to suffer from their appearance,” Adema said.

The ban on owning animals with harmful characteristics will automatically include a ban on trading and importing these animals. Adema is considering how to implement this. He is thinking about a list of external characteristics that can be objectively determent to cause permanent suffering. The list will start small but can be expanded if further research reveals harmful features.

There will be a transitional arrangement for people who already have pets with such banned characteristics. They’ll be allowed to keep their pets until the end of its life.

“Seeing a certain type of pet frequently or prominently often increases demand for it,” the Ministry said. To prevent this, Adema is also working on a ban on showing pets with harmful characteristics in advertisements or social media. He’ll “also consider the role of celebrities and influencers.

Adema stressed that both these bans are complex. The Ministry has a lot of questions to answer, like how to objectively determine that an animal is suffering from its appearance and how to handle freedom of expression on social media. “These issues will take time to work out. But we already want to inform people that this is coming, especially people considering bringing a new pet into their home.”