The focus: VGT starts large campaign for more animal rights!

The focus: VGT starts large campaign for more animal rights!

On May 20, 2025, Christine Braun, the managing director of the association against animal factories (VGT), launched a new nationwide campaign entitled "More protection for animals". This initiative takes place in cooperation with the creative agency Reichel & Partner and aims to draw attention to the insufficient conditions in livestock farming. The campaign is visually supported by advertising on trams, information screens and posters in Vienna and the surrounding area.

The campaign motifs that show a pig, a chicken and a beef in intensive animal husbandry with symbolic armor convey the clear message: animals need real protection and not just empty promises. In fact, around five million pigs, over 100 million chickens and around 650,000 cattle are slaughtered annually in Austria. The majority of these animals live in conventional attitude under conditions that remain behind the scientific recommendations and ethical demands. The VGT draws attention to this problem by fueling the social debate about the urgently needed reforms in livestock farming.

Current debates and legal framework conditions

The discussion about animal welfare in agriculture is also fueled by the recent provisions in the Animal Welfare Act. Animal rights activists are outraged because the conditions for pig farming are expected to deteriorate instead of bringing improvements. A central sentence that provided a ban on full column soils from 2040 was deleted from the law, and full column soils should continue to be allowed, sometimes only with the edition that they are covered with rubber strips.

The farmers are granted a transition period by 2060 if a ban should be introduced for full column floors. Critics, including GDR. Martin Balluch, chairman of the VGT, refer to this development as a step backwards for animal welfare and call for a cancellation of the new law by the Constitutional Court.

legal foundations of animal welfare

The Animal Welfare Act (TSchG) came into force on January 1, 2005 and replaced the various animal welfare laws of the federal states to create uniform regulations. This law implements EU guidelines regarding the minimum standards for the attitude of laying hens, mast chickens, calves and pigs and regulates the general housing conditions for animals. The detailed requirements for the keeping of individual animal species are defined in specific regulations.

The responsibility for the implementation of the law lies with the Ministry of Health. The implementation is the responsibility of the countries, and a specialist office for animal -friendly attitude and animal welfare evaluates new posture systems. Animal welfare combiners in every federal state and an animal welfare council also support the implementation and further development of animal welfare. Despite these regulations and institutions, the VGT with its campaigns remains a critical guardian who draws attention to the deficits in animal welfare and fights for strengthening the rights of animals.

For more information about the "More protection for animals" campaign and the current situation in animal welfare in Austria, please visit [ots.at] (https://www.ots.at/presseaus-sung/ots_20250520_ots0044/vgt-startet-neue-Kampagne- Mehr- Fuer-Tiere),) today.at and bmluk.gv.at.