At today's hearing on the amendment of the Animal Welfare Act in the German Bundestag's Agriculture Committee, the German Animal Welfare Association will press for necessary improvements. The animal rights activists are generally positive that the Animal Welfare Act is being revised after eleven years, but would have liked a more consistent draft that comprehensively protects animals in view of the promises made in the coalition agreement of the coalition government.
“Some important points are missing from the draft of the new Animal Welfare Act or are not regulated with the necessary consistency,” criticizes Dr. Esther Müller, Managing Director of Science at the German Animal Welfare Association, who made the association's position clear to the Agriculture Committee today. As an example, Müller points out that a nationwide castration obligation for outdoor cats is missing from the draft. Only with such a uniform nationwide regulation could the population of free-roaming street cats be efficiently reduced. As the umbrella organization for over 740 animal welfare associations and around 550 animal shelters, the German Animal Welfare Association is aware of the dimensions of the problem: Uncontrolled breeding and ill-considered acquisitions have led to the suffering of street cats becoming one of the biggest unnoticed animal welfare problems in Germany. Current figures show that animal shelters and animal welfare organizations can no longer cope with the flood of cats. In order to relieve the burden on animal shelters and prevent animal suffering, compulsory identification and registration of dogs and cats and a mandatory certificate of competence for keeping animals are also necessary, emphasizes Müller. The trade in animals must be more strictly regulated than is currently planned.
Müller also points out the need for improvements with regard to tethering. According to current legislation, owners must not restrict animals' ability to exercise in a way that causes pain or avoidable suffering or damage. Nevertheless, the regulation on tethering cattle in particular is riddled with many exceptions in the new draft law: Tethering for months on end is to remain permitted. “Tethering restricts the natural need to move and other behaviors so massively that it contradicts the Animal Welfare Act in every form,” Müller clarifies. Tethering other animal species, such as birds of prey or laboratory animals, is also contrary to animal welfare and should no longer be tolerated in a new animal welfare law. “Parliament must have the courage to consistently ban tethering for all animal species. Keeping animals tethered and condemning them to immobility for purely economic reasons or because it is more convenient to handle them is not compatible with the state objective of animal welfare enshrined in the German Basic Law,” said Müller.
The hearing before the Agriculture Committee of the German Bundestag will take place today at 5.30 pm. The German Animal Welfare Association has been invited as an expert by the SPD parliamentary group.