Ban on the slaughter of horses: no progress made – the law is back to square one
The four bills along these lines will no longer be consolidated into a single piece of legislation, as decided in recent months, but will be re-examined from scratch in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Chamber of Deputies’ Agriculture Committee has backtracked on the ban on the slaughter of equines, undoing all the progress made so far: the four bills that were moving in this direction will no longer be incorporated into a single bill, as decided in recent months following a detailed examination by the Committee itself, but will be re-examined from scratch in the Chamber of Deputies.
The reference text is now draft bill C.2187, tabled by the Alliance of Greens and the Left, to which three other proposals tabled by Noi Moderati, the M5S and the PD remain attached.
The citizens’ bill
This has been announced by Animal Equality, the international non-profit organisation which, in July 2026 – in collaboration with Fondazione Islander – had submitted to the Court of Cassation the ‘parent’ citizens’ initiative bill which, by recognising the legal status of ‘companion animal’, grants horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and hinnies the designation ‘Non Dpa – not intended for food production’.
This proposal (now published on the Ministry of Justice’s website for the collection of signatures) has so far gathered 46,600 signatures, or 93 per cent of the quorum (50,000) to be reached by the end of January, in order to oblige Parliament to examine it.
Meanwhile, in the Agriculture Committee, work on the legislative process has returned to square one.
The parliamentary process starts from scratch
Among the first actions taken by the new Chair of the Chamber of Deputies’ Agriculture Committee, Francesco Bruzzone – who took over on 13 October from Mirco Carloni, who resigned following his appointment as Chair of the Central Adriatic Sea Port System Authority – was to inform the Committee that ‘the conditions do not exist to proceed with the examination of the amendments, nor to confer the mandate on the rapporteur to report to the Chamber, nor to submit a request to postpone the examination of the bill in the Chamber’.
The consequence of the rapporteur not being granted a mandate is the annulment of the decisions taken so far by the Committee on Agriculture, with particular regard to the adoption of Bill C. 2187 Zanella as the base text, to which the other bills under consideration remain linked. So, it’s back to square one.
Pets or livestock?
“We will see the bill recognising equines as companion animals through to the end, in line with the commitment we have publicly made,” says Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a member of the Agriculture Committee. “Unfortunately, there is no shortage of attempts to obstruct this process, but we will not be deterred, in line with the commitment we have publicly made,” he concludes.
There have also been >many voices opposing the proposed bill, in the name of defending culinary traditions and the supply chain, for example from Confagricoltura and Federcarni. As well as from many members of the public defending the culinary traditions of many parts of Italia.
