With the end of the “traffic light” coalition, there is a risk that the new Animal Welfare Act, which was almost finally negotiated between the coalition parties, will no longer be passed. The German Animal Welfare Federation is now appealing to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz to get the law passed.
“There are only a few steps left to the goal of a political marathon. If the current draft bill fails, it would not only be the loss of years of work. It would be the failure of the attempt to end millions of animal suffering and finally bring the hard-won national goal of animal welfare to life politically. We therefore urgently appeal to Chancellor Scholz to ensure that the bill is discussed and passed in the Bundestag at second and third reading,” says Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation. With regard to the opposition parties, Schröder warns: “The state objective of animal welfare, which has been in the German constitution for over 20 years, applies to all parties. Party political interests must not be allowed to take precedence over the protection of animals.”
In its 2021 coalition agreement, the coalition government had agreed to amend the Animal Welfare Act of the Federal Republic of Germany. This was the first opportunity to shape the regulatory law in such a way that it meets the social demands of the state goal of animal welfare and organized animal welfare activists in Germany, for example by introducing the office of a Federal Animal Welfare Commissioner. The draft amendment to the Animal Welfare Act submitted by the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture at first reading in September of this year has been intensively discussed and almost completely negotiated by the rapporteurs of the coalition parliamentary groups in recent weeks.
