According to animal welfare scandals, Bavarian opposition criticizes system failure

Show recordings Workers who hit animals with sticks, stuck them with carpet knivesgrind them unable to move across the ground and step brutally. These scenes filmed by animal rights activists triggered the alarm at the authorities. The prosecutor is now investigating the responsible farmer, who has been involved in an animal welfare scandal for the second time; A ban on animals is to be imposed.

An anonymous advertisement recently led to the control

The case from the Unterallgäu, about which our editorial team has reported several timesis the largest of several that recently came to light. Just last week, inspectors in the district of Rosenheim found miserable cattle, 14 of them were already dead. There had been an anonymous advertisement to check there. Overall, there was « almost half a dozen animal welfare scandals in Bavaria in the current year alone, » says the agricultural expert of the SPD in the state parliament, Ruth Müller. « The current case in the Rosenheim district shows that the system simply doesn’t work. »

The Greens’ animal welfare expert, Paul Knoblach, sees it similarly: « We have animal welfare scandals almost every week in Bavaria. The system of animal welfare controls in Bavaria has finally failed. » It could not be that the authorities would always only be aware of grievances by informants.

Ministry rejects allegation of system failure

The Ministry of the Environment in Munich rejects the allegation of system failure. According to a spokesman in Bavaria, veterinary controls take place both risk -oriented and occurred. These are generally unannounced. The inspectors recently moved out more than 12,000 times a year. The Free State has created a total of around 100 new positions for official veterinarians in recent years. Overall, there are 500 veterinarians at district offices, governments, the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) and the KBLV.

This control authority for food safety and veterinarian was created after the Bayern egg scandal, in which eggs contaminated with salmonella were in circulation. The KBLV should keep an eye on large animal husbandry like those in the Unterallgäu. The district offices, on the other hand, are responsible for smaller farms. But the staff is missing there, complains the SPD politician Müller. Only seven veterinarians would come to almost 1300 companies that hold animals in Oberallgäu. As the Ministry of the Environment admitted to Müller’s request, the district office had too few people for the veterinary controls at times.

Official representatives had been repeated in the yard earlier

It was precisely in this district that a courtyard was checked after an anonymous advertisement, in which the grievances were apparently: 30 dead animals, many more neglected. The cattle stock was resolved immediately, the owner was a case for the prosecutor. As early as 2020 to 2023, the authorities were repeated after anonymous complaints in the yard, but they only found a specific violation of animal welfare in one case. Further fines were concerned with the wrong storage of carcasses. What does Müller not understand: « How can it be that no control took place in the area of ​​animal protection all year 2024? » Your allegation: you should have seen it right.

In the ministry, on the other hand, one believes that things are well regulated. Violations of animal welfare would be punished, but there could be no absolute control and security. There is no need for an immediate strengthening of the control authorities and harder sanctions as they demand the Greens.