VGT campaign in Mödling city center shows how Totschnig ignores animal suffering: would you rather cheap meat than a bit of quality of life for pigs?
We don’t want an improved fully slatted floor, we don’t want any more! At the 2022 compromise, it was clear to everyone involved that the so-called Danish system could only be a temporary interim solution that would ultimately be replaced by a minimum standard with straw. Now that is suddenly being called into question again. The VfGH only wanted to shorten the transition period until straw bedding in the interests of the pigs. The pig industry and its spokesman Totschnig are currently refusing to even consider straw for pigs. The Hubmann brothers’ husbandry system with pigs in tents in the field shows how easy and cheap it would be to keep the animals on straw in a somewhat species-appropriate manner. Instead of closing the Hubmann business, Totschnig should get his pork schnitzel from there.
DDr. Martin Balluch
Vienna (OTS) – Now it’s all about the pigs! Will there be a real ban on fully slatted floors, or will Totschnig and his pig industry prevail and cement the keeping of pigs on fully slatted floors in Austria forever with the “Danish system”? The conflict over the transition period is only one side of the problem. The other is that the Constitutional Court’s finding, which was actually positive for animal protection, also repealed all other provisions of the 2022 compromise. It said that the Danish system, a slightly improved fully slatted floor, which will be required as a minimum standard for new buildings and conversions from 2023, will also have an expiry date and will have to be replaced by a new minimum standard from 2028, which – so the hope of animal welfare – actually provides a paved area with straw bedding. If Agriculture Minister Totschnig now fears for his pork schnitzel and ignores the plight of the pigs, people with compassion fear for the urgent need for straw bedding for pigs, which would offer them at least a minimum of quality of life. Straw is the only real alternative to fully slatted flooring, a Danish system with an improved fully slatted floor is not.
That’s why the VGT sat Agriculture Minister Totschnig with his pork schnitzel next to a pig on a fully slatted floor in Mödling city center today. He ignores the current photos of pigs on fully slatted floors in Austria behind him, the main thing is that the schnitzel is cheap!
VGT chairman DDr. Martin Balluch says: “We don’t want an improved fully slatted floor, we don’t want any more! At the 2022 compromise, it was clear to everyone involved that the so-called Danish system could only be a temporary interim solution that would ultimately be replaced by a minimum standard with straw. Now that is suddenly being called into question again. The VfGH only wanted to shorten the transition period until straw bedding in the interests of the pigs. The pig industry and its spokesman Totschnig are currently refusing to even consider straw for pigs. The Hubmann brothers’ husbandry system with pigs in tents in the field shows how easy and cheap it would be to keep the animals on straw in a somewhat species-appropriate manner. Instead of closing the Hubmann business, Totschnig should get his pork schnitzel from there.
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Questions & Contact:
VGT – ASSOCIATION AGAINST ANIMAL FACTORIES
DDr. Martin Balluch
Campaign management
01 929 14 98
media@vgt.at
https://vgt.at