Exclusive
Status: 11/15/2022 11:26 am
They are not used in Germany, are taken to Spain to be fattened and sold to the Middle East, where they die in agony – one SWR-Research shows the way of young German bulls.
Young German bulls in a Lebanese slaughterhouse being tied up and thrown on the ground. The carotid artery is then cut open without anesthetic. The cattle bleed to death for minutes. The animals scream and suffer excruciating pain. There are frightening recordings that the animal rights group “Animals International” dem ARD-political magazine Report Mainz leaked.
In Lebanon, the activists were also able to film the ear tags of the German cattle: Report Mainz was able to reconstruct which way the animals took. One cow was then taken to Spain as a young calf at the age of two weeks from Xanten in North Rhine-Westphalia, another from Beverstedt near Bremerhaven, and still others from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Farmers, confronted with the pictures, were appalled and said they had sold the calves to local livestock dealers when they were two weeks old. They would have received around 50 euros per animal. They would have had to give up the animals for economic reasons. They don’t know what happened to the animals after they were sold.
Day-long crossing
After being transported from Germany, the cattle were fattened in Catalonia and finally shipped to Lebanon when they were around ten months old. Catalonia is the center of calf and beef fattening in Spain. Thousands of animals from all over the EU are fattened here, primarily for export.
Activists from the animal rights group “Animal Welfare Foundation” found evidence in Spain that German animals are increasingly being exported there. The activist Iris Baumgärtner said in an interview that they were primarily young male calves Report Mainz. They came from German milk production and would no longer be of any value for offspring. That is why they are fattened in Spain and then taken to Libya, Egypt, Turkey or Lebanon when they are eight to ten months old.
Illegal collection point hopping
The calves were finally transported to Spain via several collection points in Belgium and France Report Mainz-Research. The animals were on the road for up to 60 hours.
This is a practice that contradicts European law, according to Barbara Felde, administrative judge and second chairwoman of the German legal society for animal protection law. Cattle dealers took advantage of the fact that transports lasting up to eight hours do not require a permit. They gave nearby destinations as the final destination, but would only take the animals to another collection point that could be reached within the time window.
However, it is mandatory to state the final destination of the trip, according to the lawyer. However, this could under no circumstances be an intermediate collection point in Belgium and France. It had to be the farm where the animals would be unloaded at the end. The intermediate collection points circumvent European law. Therefore, these transports are illegal from the outset.
In plain language: German animals should not have been transported to Spain and would therefore not have ended up in Lebanon. Lawyer Felde therefore calls for more decisive political intervention. The federal government could, for example, order a federal ban on the export of live animals to risk countries by means of a law or an ordinance.
Animal welfare law should be revised
What are the EU Commission and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture doing to prevent illegal animal transport? The EU Commission announces that it wants to revise EU animal protection law in the coming year. Germany’s agriculture ministry says German veterinary certificates for exports of live cattle for breeding would be withdrawn effective July 1, 2023.
But what about the animals for slaughter, such as the calves? In addition: If German cattle can only be exported within the EU – who will check that they are not transported further from Spain, for example? The risk that animal welfare will continue to fall by the wayside is great.