For this year's World Animal Protection Day on October 4, the German Animal Welfare Federation, together with its more than 740 member associations, is proclaiming the motto “Protect animals, don't betray them. New animal protection law - now”. The reason for this is the weak draft of a new animal protection law, which is to be submitted to parliament on September 26. The German Animal Welfare Federation is already reminding parliamentarians of the national goal of animal welfare as part of a protest action in Berlin and is calling for improvements to the draft bill. Representatives of the state animal welfare associations and animal welfare organizations in the German Animal Welfare Federation as well as other animal welfare organizations are supporting the protest.
“The Animal Welfare Act submitted for the parliamentary procedure by the responsible Minister Özdemir does not do justice to the state objective of animal welfare. It does not fulfill the promises formulated in the coalition agreement,” criticizes Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation. “Our hopes now lie all the more with Parliament. The necessary steps in animal protection must now be consistently and therefore irreversibly enshrined in law, as has been required by the national goal of animal protection since 2002.”
With today's protest action in front of the Paul Löbe House, the animal rights activists are recalling the animal welfare promise of the coalition agreement and the state goal of animal welfare in the German Basic Law. With signs, banners and larger-than-life animal figures, they point out that the Animal Welfare Act needs to be improved with regard to the tethering of cattle, non-curative interventions on animals, torture breeding, cat protection and animal testing, among other things. “There is still time to make a real animal protection law,” says President Schröder. The German Animal Welfare Federation is calling for the adoption of a law that fully protects animals. Although the current draft bill addresses individual points, it does not do so consistently, according to the association. “If the amendment is not used now to move forward in animal welfare, such a historic opportunity will not be available for a long time,” Schröder clarifies.
World Animal Day goes back to Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, who was canonized on 4 October 1228. Every year, animal rights activists use the day to draw attention to the suffering of animals caused by humans. Every year, the German Animal Welfare Federation gives the day of action a current theme.
