Animal welfare in danger: Veterinary offices fight against a lack of staff!

In Schleswig-Holstein, many veterinary offices face major challenges: A survey by the NDR shows that routine controls in the field of animal protection can hardly be carried out. The situation is critical; Personal bottlenecks and additional tasks burden the authorities. Animal welfare organizations, such as "Team Tierschutz", recently published videos that documented grievances in a pig fattening company in the Segeberg district. It is striking that the veterinary office was not previously informed about these problems, which ultimately led to the closure of the company.

The country is fighting personnel bottlenecks in the veterinary offices, which leads to a drastic reduction in occasional animal welfare controls. In the district of Plön, it is pointed out that the personnel key is insufficient for the necessary controls. In several circles, areas are vacant or employees are longer due to illness. This situation is tightened by the need to do additional tasks such as the prevention of animal diseases.

weaknesses in the control system

Despite the legal requirements, the veterinary offices in Germany must ensure that all agricultural pet owners comply with animal welfare regulations. Even if the controls are carried out without notice and are to be carried out by qualified staff, current figures show that the control density is inadequate. In 2023, only 75,530 of 404,205 livestock farms subject to control were checked. This corresponds to a control rate of around 19%. In almost a quarter of controlled companies, violations of animal welfare law were found, which in 312 cases led to judicial advertisements, as agriculture reported.

The animal welfare organizations therefore call for an increase in the control density, with the aim of carrying out control at least once a year. The scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture had already recommended frequent and better controls in 2015. At the same time, the veterinary offices complain about a continued lack of personnel that makes it difficult to carry out versatile controls.

In some federal states, including Bavaria and Lower Saxony, it was announced that it was more important for animal welfare controls. North Rhine-Westphalia has also set up a new animal health database to improve control. On the other hand, the demand that better networking and digitization of the offices are necessary to recognize violations earlier. Ellen Kloth, the state chairman of the animal protection association, also calls for regular further training for farmers and appeals for a need for action in the area of ​​animal welfare controls.