Pigs in need: government under pressure to finally ensure better keeping conditions!

Pigs in need: government under pressure to finally ensure better keeping conditions!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - A dramatic fate for Austria's pigs is imminent because the new government has to act urgently! The Constitutional Court has set a deadline by May 31, 2025, up to which a new transition period for the ban on full column floors in pig farming must be decided. A ban has already been announced in 2022, but the VfGH declared the period applicable until 2040 as insufficient and too long. Now a step backwards threatens: If the government remains idle, a minimum standard automatically applies, which hardly brings any improvements to the animals, the animal protection organization reports four paws. This sees the farmers in responsibility and accuses them of hypocrisy.

According to campaign manager Veronika Weissenböck, the debate of origin is misleading via a ban on full split floors. An actually effective ban would mean that pigs are no longer on concrete floors with columns. However, the current regulation only proves that there must be fewer columns in a third of the stable surface, while the remaining two thirds can remain unchanged. In addition, the animals only receive a slight increase in space from 0.7 m² to 0.8 m² per animal, which is highly insufficient. "We are calling for the ministers: inside Korinna Schumann and Norbert Tettschnig a real ban that can improve the life of the animals," says Weissenböck.

Time is pushing

If the new government does not become active by the end of May, the situation could end catastrophically for around 4.6 million pigs in Austria. Every year, around 70 % of the animals are held on full column floors, which leads to significant health problems such as joint and pneumonia. Four paws have therefore started a digital protest to put pressure on the responsible ministers: inside. Because one thing is clear: the animals not only need less columns in the ground, but above all space and straw. "It is easy to argue with minimal improvements, while the basic problem of creating help," warned Weissenböck, as well as the Kurier reported. Will the new government have the courage to bring about real change and to fundamentally improve the living conditions for the pigs?