Carinthian pensioner in court: cruelty to animals or self -defense because of cat?

Carinthian pensioner in court: cruelty to animals or self -defense because of cat?

A current incident in Carinthia raises questions about animal welfare and the legal assessment of cruelty to animals. A 69-year-old pensioner had set up a live trap to capture the neighboring cat "Klara". The reason for this was that the cat used its garden as a litter box. The incident led to a trial at the Klagenfurt Regional Court, in which judge Lisa Kuschinsky headed the indictment against the man. The central question is whether the behavior of the pensioner can be seen as cruelty to animals, a topic that is currently being increasingly discussed in society. According to Krone, "Klara" was sitting in the trap for several hours, which also dramatizes the Situation.

The legal framework for such incidents is defined by the Animal Welfare Act (Animal Welfare Act) that protects all animals, including vertebral and invertebrate. It makes it clear that animals are not things and have to be specially protected. The law prohibits causing animals without a valid reason (§ 1 sentence 2 TierSchG). In the event of a violation of animals, law enforcement can be carried out both according to the Animal Welfare Act and the German Criminal Code (Section 303 of the Criminal Code). However, the complex legal situation often means that the protection of the animals is considered inadequate, since different dishes of the law make different interpretations of the animal protection association.

difficult location for animals in Germany

In Germany, the problem of cruelty to animals should not be underestimated, especially in agriculture. Animal welfare and animal rights organizations have published a database that has documented 163 cases of previously unknown cruelty to animals since 2016. These revelations are not only "regrettable individual cases", but also draw an image of systematic grievances in animal husbandry. The [database] (https://aninova.org/pressemitteilung/tierrechts-vero-Effective database-der-tieren-in-deutschland-Tier- Tier-waum-kaum-traft/) contains a map of Germany with recorded violations that highlights districts with animal welfare problems.

The controls in agriculture are only carried out on average every 17 years, although in some federal states such as Bavaria, an average of an average of every 49 years is checked. This control is often announced beforehand, which significantly limits its actual effectiveness. This leads to a worrying traffic area in which only 15 % of the documented cases ended with a punishment and only led to an animal retention ban.

With the current process in Klagenfurt, attention is again drawn to animal welfare. It remains to be hoped that both the legal framework and the social perception of cruelty to animals change to improve the protection of animals.