It has been a few weeks since police officers and official veterinarians discovered the carcasses of 150 beef cattle after an anonymous tip on a farm near Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Some were so decayed that the animals had evidently died a long time ago. The police, who immediately started investigations into animal cruelty against the farmer, assume that the cattle had far too little to eat and drink. 50 animals were still alive, but in such poor condition that they either died or had to be killed. The case is now with the public prosecutor in Ansbach.
Conditions like those on the farm near Rothenburg are definitely an extreme individual case and by no means transferable to the many other cattle farmers in Bavaria. On the other hand, there is still a lack of clear animal welfare guidelines for keeping beef cattle. At the federal level as well as in Bavaria. Of course, like all other livestock owners, farmers have to adhere to paragraph two of the Animal Welfare Act. In other words, “feed, care for and house their cattle appropriately” according to their needs, as it says there.
What this means in concrete terms for the space that such a beef cattle needs, whether it has to be allowed to run outside or even to get some fresh air at times, to name just a few examples, has not yet been set out in any separate set of rules. The veterinarian Frigga Wirths from the Academy for Animal Welfare in Munich and the official veterinarian Kai Braunmiller from the State Working Group on Meat Hygiene and Animal Welfare in Bavaria have long complained about this as a major grievance.
Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (FW), who by virtue of his office is also responsible for animal welfare, now wants to issue specifications for beef cattle at the Bavarian level. He wants to bring out an animal welfare guideline for this by the end of the year. “We all want high-quality food from healthy animals that are kept in a species-appropriate manner,” says Glauber. “That requires clarity.” According to his promise, the guideline will include the most important requirements for species-appropriate husbandry and information for the farmers. This not only facilitates the farmers’ work and the veterinarians the monitoring of the farms. But also to the courts to assess any violations.
The experts Wirths and Braunmiller welcome the guideline as overdue. They share Glauber’s assessment that it will improve legal security for farmers and official veterinarians alike. That alone is a step forward. After all, keeping beef cattle is an important branch of Bavarian agriculture. In 2020, almost 900,000 cattle were slaughtered in the Free State, almost two thirds of them in Upper Bavaria and Swabia. A large part of them were probably fattening bulls. According to the State Office for Agriculture (LfL), they are ready for slaughter at an average of one and a half years and then weigh around 725 kilograms. With the production of beef and veal, the farmers earn a good 14 percent of their total income.
Another question is whether Glauber actually succeeds in improving the keeping conditions with the animal welfare guideline. For example, to put an end to tethering, as animal rights activists have long been calling for. The cattle are cooped up in a mostly old stable, each one for itself in a narrow box. Although tethering is one of the darkest aspects of cattle farming, it is widespread. Experts estimate their share in beef cattle at up to 40 percent. And many farmers obviously do not want to let go of her, so far they have refused to accept any final exit scenario. It was only in May that Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) asked farmers in a government statement to finally do without it. Since then she has been exposed to a real shit storm, it is said from her environment.