Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation, comments on the coalition negotiations between the CDU, CSU and SPD and the first animal welfare-related topics that have been leaked from the working groups:
“The first information from the negotiators' working groups gives hope that at least something is moving. It seems that 80 million euros for animal shelters has been successfully accommodated - money that we have been demanding for a long time and which is necessary to maintain animal shelters as part of the critical infrastructure. The CDU, CSU and SPD negotiating team deserve great credit for the fact that the value of practical animal welfare work for society and public safety is now apparently being recognized and appreciated. However, more animal protection is urgently needed in other areas - this is also required by the state objective of animal protection in the German Basic Law!
Most of the animal welfare aspects that the CDU/CSU and SPD have negotiated for the coalition agreement are too vague, leave a lot of leeway or are formulated too weakly. The billions envisaged for barn conversions could bring movement to the transformation of livestock farming, but it remains unclear what is meant by “animal welfare”. Mandatory video surveillance in slaughterhouses is only to be examined. In the pet sector, the plans are even thinner. Important topics, such as the introduction of a nationwide castration obligation for outdoor cats or an obligation to identify and register dogs and cats, have not yet been considered at all, but urgently need to be on the agenda of the new federal government. The fact that the CDU/CSU and SPD want to lower the protection status of the wolf is unacceptable from an animal and species protection perspective.
Nothing has been agreed yet, so we need to make improvements now, not weaken them. In the last legislative period, the Federal Government promised us a lot in terms of animal welfare, but hardly implemented anything. This time, the national goal of animal welfare and the corresponding agreements from the coalition negotiations must be taken seriously. To quote Friedrich Merz: It must be delivered!”
