Legal animal protection
The position of animals in our society and how animals may (not) be treated is fundamentally determined by our legal system and a multitude of interconnected laws.
As lawyers specializing in animal protection law, we are committed to the effective enforcement of existing regulations and to systematic improvements in the legal framework for the protection of animals in our society.
In our society, animals are naturally used as resources used for various human purposes:
For the production of food (e.g. meat, eggs, milk), for the manufacture of everyday objects such as clothing, bags, shoes, furniture, accessories (with animal components such as leather, fur, down, etc.), as living test objects in a wide variety of research areas, for the provision of services (e.g. pack animals, carriage horses, police, avalanche, hunting, guard dogs), for the amusement/entertainment of people (e.g. zoos, circuses, exhibitions, competitions, trophy hunting), etc.
To satisfy these human interests, (some) animals – like other “goods” – are “produced” in mass quantities, while other animals are “taken” from nature.
In addition to this targeted use of animals by humans, there is also, on the one hand, the deliberate decimation of certain animal species (particularly so-called "pests" or "predators") and, on the other hand, the incidental damage to countless wild animals in road traffic as well as through the progressive spread of humans and the resulting destruction of the habitat of these animals.
The use and killing of animals by humans seems to happen quite naturally and on an unimaginable scale:
Worldwide, around 65 billion (land vertebrates) and around 1 trillion fish are killed for food every year. In Germany's largest pig slaughterhouse, around 40,000 pigs are killed every day (!)! Before that, most of these animals are kept in painful conditions throughout their (short) "fattening" lives (now, in percentage terms, almost all land animals used by humans - in absolute terms, around 450 billion animals worldwide - live in intensive farming systems until they are killed).
Around 11.5 million animals are used for animal testing in the EU every year (around 100 million live vertebrates are tested on every year worldwide). Around 25 million animals are killed every year in the EU alone for their fur, and because of the lack of economic viability of male chicks in the egg industry, around 330 million so-called "day-old chicks" are killed every year across the EU as "disposable products".
The number of (farm) animals deliberately produced for human purposes is constantly increasing , while the number of wild animals is continuously shrinking – every year it is estimated that between 11,000 and 57,000 animal species become extinct.
Since many of the current and legally permissible forms of animal use are inherently associated with pain or suffering for the animals, it must be acknowledged that an immense amount of institutionalized animal cruelty is taking place today that is not considered animal cruelty by law or by definition.
There are now numerous laws and regulations designed to ensure a certain level of protection for animals used, kept and killed by humans in a variety of ways, and these laws suggest that animals are recognized as sentient beings with a respectable interest in freedom from pain and suffering .
At the same time, the exploitation of animals in our society, particularly due to the industrial mass production of animal products and the associated goal of increasing productivity (volume, speed, cost reduction), has reached an unprecedented level, the excesses of which are in no way "satisfactorily" kept within limits despite the existing flood of laws.
In addition, a kind of schizophrenia can be observed in that completely different protection standards prevail depending on the animal species, which has exclusively to do with the human categorisation into pets (dogs, cats, etc.) on the one hand and farm animals on the other and the associated (existing or lacking) sentimentalities and economic interests, and in no way with different needs, interests or characteristics on the part of the various animal species.
With today's knowledge about the nature, abilities, emotional world and social life of animals, the legal and factual status quo in the treatment of animals can no longer be ethically justified.
Therefore, one of our greatest concerns is the commitment to systematic improvements in the legal framework for the protection and status of animals in our society.
In her extensive dissertation (Animal Law published by Jan Sramek Verlag; interview about the book on Animal Rights Radio), Johanna has dealt in detail with all legal requirements on the treatment and legal status of animals on over 700 pages - these include civil and criminal law, the Animal Welfare Act, the Animal Transport Act, the Animal Testing Act (each with the associated regulations), the hunting laws of the states, the Federal Constitution (state objective of animal protection and basic human rights) and EU law, since the EU (primarily to prevent distortions of competition) has now issued requirements that must be implemented by the member states in some important areas (animal testing, animal transport, keeping of farm animals, slaughter methods and species protection).
Patricia has decided to dedicate her legal dissertation to the subject of animal transport law. In her dissertation ( published by Schulthess Verlag ; interview about the book on Tierrechtsradio ), Patricia has taken a detailed look at the European, German, Swiss and Austrian animal transport systems, highlighting the shortcomings on a legal and practical level and identifying possible improvements. Patricia is a public figure for a fundamental improvement in animal transport law and an end to the transport of live animals - you can find her speaking on this topic at panel discussions, on television, on the radio or in the newspaper. Patricia is also a member of the investigative journalist start-up TheMarker , which is conducting explosive uncovering work on the serious abuses in the export and transport of Austrian cattle to third countries, including Algeria.
During her many years of work at the Tyrol Animal Welfare Association with its four animal shelters, Verena has gained a lot of experience in the area of individual, illegal forms of animal husbandry that require official intervention in order to protect the animals in question from their respective owners using the measures provided for in the Animal Welfare Act (in particular confiscation and forfeiture of the animals). Verena will always have particular memories of various operations in so-called "hoarder households" where, in cooperation between the authorities and the animal welfare association, countless, often completely disturbed and neglected, animals were rescued, and space had to be made for them in the animal shelter on the same day.
Our commitment is to improving the legal status of all animals, and at the same time we are trying to work towards the effective enforcement of existing legal requirements, as there are unfortunately serious enforcement deficits in the area of animal protection law as a whole (probably due to the lack of regular and effective official controls and the imposition of effective sanctions when violations are identified). The effective enforcement of existing legal animal protection regulations must be guaranteed, as otherwise the relevant requirements are not worth more than the paper they are written on!