Overcrowded stables, emaciated cows, inflamed claws with rotten bandages and cattle lying in excrement: Gabriele Fuchs uses photos to describe the conditions on the large farm of an Allgäu family in December 2019. The cows and calves there suffered “unbelievable pain” have to – and that “not just since yesterday,” says the official veterinarian.
The former managers of the dairy farm, a married couple and their adult son, have been answerable to the Kempten District Court for massive violations of the Animal Welfare Act since Tuesday. Her farm was one of five companies that hit the headlines in the wake of the Allgäu animal welfare scandal between July 2019 and January 2020 because of serious grievances. The trigger was video recordings that are said to have come from a farm in the Unterallgäu district. The trial in Kempten is the first legal proceeding around the scandal, which sparked outrage nationwide.
To begin with, the three defendants admitted that they had neglected their cattle for months in more than 100 cases, thereby causing them to suffer. They had their defense lawyers explain that they had been overwhelmed with the previously significantly enlarged family business after their son had had a serious accident. According to the indictment, father, mother and son kept almost 600 instead of 180 cows after the expansion – but did far too little to look after and care for them.
“There was an absolute overwhelming situation.”
According to the defense, the family had enlarged the farm so that the son could run the business economically. His father wanted to spare him “having to do another job every day like himself”. But in May 2019, the son was seriously injured in a car accident. The 43-year-old was initially in a coma, had been on sick leave for months and was absent from the farm. “The situation was absolutely overwhelmed,” said defender Holger Hoffmann. The 71-year-old thought about selling the cattle after his son’s accident, Hoffmann said. Ultimately, he decided against it because of the hope of his son’s return – and for fear of what he would “probably say when he comes back to an empty stable”.
When the judge asked, the father could not say why the family from the Oberallgäu district did not pull the rip cord much earlier after the first controls in October 2019. Even then, official veterinarians had found glaring deficiencies, after the inspection in December several animals had to be euthanized. The farm was searched in January 2020, followed by further controls – emaciated, injured or neglected cattle were always found. The family only broke up their animal husbandry in March 2020.
The three farmers are not the only ones who have to answer in court after the Allgäu animal welfare scandal. The Memmingen district court has admitted charges against two men who are said to have failed to adequately care for 54 cattle between July and November 2019. The dairy farm has stopped with three farms in the districts of Unterallgäu, Oberallgäu and in Kempten. The trial at the Memmingen regional court is still pending. In Kempten, however, a judgment could soon be made. According to a court spokesman, only one more trial date is planned – December 14th. If convicted, the three defendants face fines or up to three years in prison.