Court of Auditors report

Animal welfare controls inadequate and ineffective

Footage of suffering pigs in southern Styria: The Association Against Animal Factories (VGT) repeatedly uncovers cases of animal cruelty.

(Bild: VGT)

Court of Audit denounces considerable deficiencies in agricultural livestock farming in Austria: Some farmers have never experienced an animal welfare inspection in the course of an entire professional life. The inefficient system even encourages cruelty to animals.

A recent report by the Austrian Court of Audit shows in black and white how inefficiently Austrian authorities work when it comes to subsidies and inspections of farms.

While zoos and animal shelters in Austria are inspected annually, the Animal Welfare Inspection Ordinance only stipulates two percent for livestock farms. This means that a farmer has to expect an inspection approximately every 50 years - and not even this is adhered to.

One reason for this could be that there are far too few inspection staff and obviously not the will or the possibility to change this situation. In some federal states, the inspection density is so low that an entire generation of owners has never experienced such an inspection.

Announced controls are useless
In Upper Austria, for example, only around 1.58% were checked between 2018 and 2022. "Apart from the fact that an inspection by the official veterinarian is practically always announced in advance, which means that a lot can be covered up, statistically it already takes up to 63 years before it's your turn! One farmer told me that he had never been inspected and neither had his father. In view of these figures, he is probably no exception," says Jürgen Stadler, animal welfare spokesperson for Pfotenhilfe Lochen in Upper Austria.

Where there is no plaintiff, there is no judge. This is clear from the Court of Auditors' report. Independent controls and sufficient staff are needed to regularly inspect businesses.

Maggie Entenfellner, Ressortleiterin „Krone“-Tierecke

Bild: krone.tv

Lack of networking between authorities
It is true that the inspections carried out as part of the animal welfare subsidies fulfilled basic requirements. However, animal welfare is made more difficult by information gaps and highly fragmented responsibilities and tasks - not least due to the lack of uniform nationwide guidelines.

Responsibilities in animal husbandry are distributed at EU, federal, state and district level. This means that "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing", says Vier Pfoten campaign manager Veronika Weissenböck. Important information is often not passed on between the authorities, which means that violations of the Animal Welfare Act or Animal Husbandry Ordinance are not uncovered.

Subsidies for "black sheep"
The Court of Audit particularly criticized the lack of communication between the district administrative authorities and Agrar-Markt-Austria (AMA). Due to a lack of coordination, subsidies continued to be paid out to farmers even though there had already been serious breaches of the regulations on livestock farming.

As sad as this report is! It is an important key in the fight against animal suffering and a clear mandate for politicians!