On the occasion of a new scandal in the pig breeding industry at Gut Thiemendorf GmbH & Co KG in Thuringia (see: ‘Immense animal suffering’: Activists uncover abuses in breeding facilities | MDR.DE), the German Animal Welfare Association and its Thuringia State Animal Welfare Association are appalled and are calling on politicians to change the system.
"The current images from the facility in Thuringia are extremely disturbing. In view of such abuses, it is now necessary to have an honest debate about the protection of animals in agriculture and about the consequences of a system of animal husbandry based on efficiency and low prices," says Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Association. "As long as animals are bred, kept and killed for human consumption, compliance with animal welfare standards must at least be guaranteed. This requires stricter controls and tougher penalties. And an increase in the legal requirements for breeding and keeping farm animals. The new Federal Minister of Agriculture now has a duty to ensure better standards without delay."
The hidden images from the pig farm in Thuringia show hundreds of piglets that have not been properly anaesthetised and bled. In some scenes, dying piglets crawl across the floor covered in blood, sometimes their death throes only ending after 20 minutes. Several piglets can be seen in the carcass barrel that are not dead but still kicking. This is a scandal, especially as the farm has been the subject of a number of criminal complaints in recent years - because the crates are too narrow, but also because the killing of piglets is contrary to animal welfare standards. However, these were unsuccessful.
"Nothing has changed; the justice system failed in this case. The farm carried on, only changing the managing director, currently a Dutchman,‘ says Kevin Schmidt, Chairman of the Thuringia State Animal Welfare Association, criticising: ’In such huge animal breeding facilities - like this one with 9,000 sows - animals do not count as living beings, but are merely production goods. The broken system is geared solely towards economic efficiency: Piglets are overproduced and literally die for the bin if they are too small, too weak or simply too many." According to estimates by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, 6.7 million piglets die every year in Germany alone - because it is too expensive to bring them through or provide them with veterinary treatment.
