New government program: hope for animal welfare or just a fraud picture?

New government program: hope for animal welfare or just a fraud picture?

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - The formation of government in Austria is still tense, especially in terms of animal welfare. After the coalition between FPÖ and ÖVP failed, the negotiations between the remaining parties are under massive time pressure. The association against animal factories (VGT) warns that animal welfare could fall by the wayside in these rapid negotiations. Dr. Martin Balluch, VGT chairman, emphasizes that the urgently needed appointment of a Minister for Animal Welfare and the adaptation of the Animal Welfare Act must be made immediately, since only three months remain in order to remove deficits in the legal system in front of the Constitutional Court. In the meantime, the provisions on full column floors, which are of crucial importance for pig keeping, are under discussion, since the FPÖ and the ÖVP are striving to reduce the standards to the EU minimum.

alarming developments for animal welfare

In order to draw attention to the catastrophic living conditions of pigs, the VGT placed a life -size plastic pig on a concrete full column floor in front of the parliament. The animal rights activists immediately asked the parties not to forget the revision of the existing laws. The VGT has clear ideas: a ban on the structured full column floor, which according to balluch is only considered a inferior alternative to the unstructured full column floor, is essential. "Only a mandatory straw litter can guarantee a real improvement in living conditions for the animals," continued Balluch. According to the plans that are outlined in the government program, there should be measures to improve animal transport standards, and the requirements for attitude and origin identifiers should also be tightened, which gives hope for animal rights activists.

The new government program, which comes onto the table after the coalition is lost, shows potential for progress in animal welfare, even if the discussion about the full column floor could be taken up again in two years, as Balluch notes. As a result, the ban on the full column floor in the pig breeding could be under the pressure of constitutional complaints. The urgency of the situation therefore remains enormous, and the VGT urgently appeals to all decision -makers not to lose sight of the interests of the animals, as also reported vgt.at