In this proposed presentation I intend to give a historical overview of the political and constitutional debates in selected European countries – including Germany, France, Great Britain, Holland and Scandinavia – from the nineteenth century to the present day, paying special attention to the shift in emphasis after mass Muslim immigration began in the 1960s. In this sense, the protection of animal welfare as a legitimate concern of the state can be placed in a wider context of secular concerns for vulnerable groups that violently clashes with pre-modern notions of religious or cultural autonomy. Similar in nature if not necessarily in intensity to questions of forced and/or underage marriage, male circumcision and female genital mutilation, the commitment of the secular state to animal welfare cannot summarily be rejected by demands for religious freedom.