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Around 2000 pigs die every day in Austria’s pig factories as a result of the fully slatted floor – ÖVP tries to shift responsibility to supermarkets
Vienna (OTS) – What the fully slatted floor causes animal suffering can be seen very clearly Pig Anna occupy. Today a healthy, lively and fun-loving animal, during the months on fully slatted floors she was a shadow of herself, apathetic, with huge wounds and boils all over her body. This soil destroys animal souls. And as long as the ÖVP does not react and finally agrees to the prohibition of this cruelty to animals, around 2000 pigs will continue to perish cruelly from this type of husbandry every day. That is why the VGT says: Agriculture Minister Köstinger has blood on her hands.
During the action in front of the Swiss Gate in the Vienna Hofburg, on the occasion of the renewed debate brought in by the SPÖ today in the parliament meeting there on the implementation of animal welfare demands, in particular the ban on fully slatted floors, the VGT symbolized this fact. While Köstinger is sitting in the armchair with blood-red hands, a pig dies next to her on the fully slatted floor. ÖVP MPs who came by shifted responsibility to the supermarkets. As long as the cheapest action meat is offered there, the ÖVP cannot agree to the ban on the fully slatted floor. The ÖVP overlooks the fact that it is the other way around: if the keeping conditions for the animals get better, then the price will rise, and the supermarkets have already guaranteed that in this case they will continue to sell Austrian pork and not replace it with cheap imports.
VGT chairman Martin Balluch comments: “The supermarket excuse doesn’t count. We have spoken to everyone in charge of the food retail industry and the signs are green. We were guaranteed that an industry agreement would be reached in the event of a ban on fully slatted floors. The ÖVP just doesn’t want to offend its clientele, the pig factories. Everything should stay as it is, no matter how the pigs are. It was the same story at the time when battery cages were banned. There, too, there were gossip about market losses in order to prevent a ban. And then it turned out that the ban boosted production in Austria and reduced imports of cage eggs. There is absolutely no reason not to assume the same result with the ban on fully slatted floors in pig farming. “
Inquiries & contact:
VGT – Association against animal factories
DDr. Martin Balluch
Campaign management
01 929 14 98
media@vgt.at
http://vgt.at
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