The eyes are big like a doll’s, the snub nose short, at least too short to breathe – popular pets like the French bulldog often lead a torturous life because of their inbred characteristics. “Defective breeding” is what the Berlin animal pathologist Achim Gruber calls such creatures that have to gasp for breath just because their heads have been adapted to the human child pattern. For years, Gruber, who teaches at the Free University of Berlin, has been calling for such deliberate deformities to be combated, including in so-called merle piebalds, i.e. animals with white spotted fur, which often pay for their beauty with deafness or blindness.
“We know more than 80 different diseases, pains or ailments that are associated with a breeding goal,” says the veterinarian. “But there are too few instructions for veterinary authorities to take such animal species out of circulation.” Ten years ago, the Animal Welfare Act was expanded to include a paragraph against so-called torture breeding, says Gruber. However, there were no definitions as to where exactly this torment actually begins.
The minister wants to get on the fur of dealers
Now the federal government is helping the animal pathologist, at least to a certain extent. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) plans to tighten the animal welfare law. A draft bill that has gone into preliminary voting provides for high penalties for the abuse of animals. So-called torture breeding of pets is to be pushed back, but livestock in the agricultural sector and in slaughterhouses are to be better protected than before.
“When we look at the overall balance of animal welfare over the past 20 years, we see that there are deficits in many areas when it comes to dealing with animals,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday in Berlin. For many animal species there are no husbandry regulations whatsoever, for others they are unclear or disregarded. But Özdemir also wants to get on the fur of dealers in breeding animals. For example, a ban on showing animals with tormented breed characteristics at exhibitions is planned. “The demand for such animals should be reduced,” said Özdemir’s spokeswoman.
What torture breeding is has yet to be determined
The animal protection organization PETA lists 17 so-called torture breeds. In addition to the pug, she has also put the popular dachshund on her index, which is prone to painful herniated discs because of its excess length. The animal protection organization also considers the German shepherd dog to be a torture breed because of the increased risk of hip paralysis. The kneecaps of the mini dog Chihuahua can jump out of the joint, blue-eyed dogs often struggle with severe skin eczema, hairless cats with sunburn, Angora rabbits with heat build-up. The list of artificially created genetic defects and diseases is long.
The Green Minister of Agriculture, however, does not want to ban the keeping or breeding of such animal breeds. Only an exhibition and advertising ban is planned. A list of what is considered torture breeding is yet to be presented. “The demand for such animals should be reduced,” said Özdemir’s spokeswoman. Mandatory identification of dogs and cats is also planned. They should be easier to identify and trace, also to online platforms that play an important role in the illegal animal trade. The sale of live “cephalopods and decapods” intended for consumption is also to be completely banned.
Özdemir’s planned reform also includes stricter requirements for agriculture. In the future, for example, anyone who wants to tie stable animals will need a veterinary indication. Clipping the curly tails of pigs or the tails of hunting dogs without stunning is to be prohibited, as is the dehorning of cattle.
Not enough, complains the animal welfare organization Four Paws. She welcomes Özdemir’s plans, in principle. Above all, because economic interests should no longer be used to justify animal cruelty. “It is all the more incomprehensible that the new law should also allow amputations to be carried out on farm animals for economic reasons,” says a statement.
Özdemir wants to oblige Germany’s slaughterhouses to document every step of the work by video, from delivery to killing to bleeding of all “warm-blooded animals”, at their own expense. According to his draft, anyone who “kills a vertebrate without good reason” faces imprisonment for up to five years or a fine. Anyone who subjects animals to considerable pain and suffering “out of cruelty” risks even ten years in prison in particularly serious cases. Maximum fine for causing unnecessary animal suffering: up to 100,000 euros.