A lawsuit against three farmers for violating the Animal Welfare Act fell through due to time constraints. Since the Memmingen Regional Court was unable to find a hearing date in the coming weeks due to the holiday season, the procedure must now probably be restarted in spring 2024, according to a court spokesman on Friday. At first she had Allgäu newspaper reported about the termination of the process.
A 67-year-old dairy farmer and his two sons are charged in the proceedings. The three farmers are said to be responsible for the fact that 32 sick cattle were not treated by veterinarians. They are said to have accepted that animals suffered in order to save money for the vets.
The 67-year-old had rejected the allegations at the start of the trial on Tuesday. He had explained that veterinarians were regularly in the barn to treat the cattle. As a result, the defense attorneys had filed bias requests against experts on Thursday. As a result, the process could not have ended in the coming week as originally planned.
Since deadlines have to be observed between the days of the trial in a criminal trial, further appointments should have been made with all those involved in August. However, this was not possible due to the holiday season.
The farm of the three accused is in Bad Grönenbach in the Lower Allgäu, where an animal welfare scandal began four years ago. At the time, an animal protection organization had published a video that was supposed to show animal cruelty from a large company. As a result, the authorities investigated those responsible for several farms and three charges were filed. In one case, farmers in Memmingen have already been convicted, the other two charges have yet to be heard.