In September, the Animal Welfare Office published frightening photos from seven Westfleisch suppliers. In a case in the district of Borken, the public prosecutor’s office is now bringing charges. Another procedure has been set against a payment of money.
After shocking recordings from several pig fattening farms, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, charges were brought in one case for violating the Animal Welfare Act. The suspicion is directed against a fattening farm in Velen in the Borken district, said a spokesman for the Münster public prosecutor’s office at the request of the German Press Agency. In September 2022, the German Animal Welfare Office denounced drastic abuses in fattening farms and published photos that are said to come from six companies in North Rhine-Westphalia and in one case from a company in Lower Saxony – all are suppliers to Westfleisch, one of Germany’s largest pig slaughterers.
Jan Peifer from the Animal Welfare Office criticized that, with one exception, Westfleisch had not ended the cooperation with the seven “scandal companies”. The group of companies had announced several measures and emphasized that the allegations against the individual animal owners were taken very seriously. According to the Animal Welfare Office, the case from Velen will soon be heard before the District Court of Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia. A court spokeswoman said: “Indictment yes, but no date has been set.” According to the animal rights activists, the fattening farm, as a cooperation partner of Westfleisch, has received around 50,000 euros in EU subsidies for environmental and animal welfare improvements in recent years.
In a second case, the public prosecutor’s office discontinued the procedure against payment of a “four-digit” monetary requirement, as spokesman Martin Botzenhardt said. According to the animal welfare office, the farmer from the Warendorf district has to pay 3,000 euros. The organization had triggered the investigation with shocking video material. You could see pigs with bleeding wounds, abscesses, inflammation of the eyes and legs, and some dead or even decomposing animals were lying in the stable.
