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New laws ban bestiality but not branding

Published: 14 Dec 12 15:55 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20121214-46781.html

German parliament has passed a law making bestiality illegal, while at the same time continuing to allow farming practices such as branding horses and castrating pigs without anaesthetic, to the anger of animal rights activists.

German zoophiles can now face fines of up to €25,000 for all forms of sex with animals.

The rules passed on Thursday by the Bundestag lower house of parliament form part of a package of measures aimed at bolstering animal protection to bring the country in line with a European Union directive.

Yet animal protection groups are deploring other rules passed at the same time which allow practices such as castrating pigs and branding horses - which inflict pain on animals but are common in livestock breeding - to continue.

By voting to continue to allow horse breeders to brand animals, the government ignored the advice of its own Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, who had argued for a ban.

The animal rights association PETA called it a black day for animals, while the German Farmers Association said the new rules actually raised demands on livestock owners. From 2019 onwards handlers must give horses a local anaesthetic before they are branded.

The same applies to male pigs, which from 2019 must receive an anaesthetic before being castrated – a process which removes the gamey flavour in pork from male pigs.

“The castration of male pigs is a bigger problem than the branding of horses from the perspective of animal protection,” said Jörg Aurich, veterinary expert at the University of Vienna.

An alternative method to get rid of the smell - which disappears anyway after cooking - must be found, he added.

DPA/The Local/jlb

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

16:49 December 14, 2012 by raandy
I grew up on a farm and branding was standard, A cows skin is a lot thicker than ours , I am sure it hurt but it did not last long, the young ones most often went to mama for a drink and the older went over lied down and started chewing their cuds.

For all you out there that didn't grow up on a farm or a dirt road, when a cow chews its cud it is a happy cow.
05:18 December 15, 2012 by Steve1949
Then I guess you wouldn't mind being castrated without receiving an anesthetic?
07:12 December 15, 2012 by pepsionice
Just an observation, after living and traveling Germany for twenty-odd years....but I've yet to see a branded animal. I have my doubts that if you drew a 50-km circle around your village.....you probably won't find any such identified animals.
11:38 December 15, 2012 by auslanderus
There is a lot of difference between branding a cow or horse and having sex with one. Maybe the animal rights people need to have more sex with animals and less worry about branding.
13:27 December 15, 2012 by ovalle3.14
They should also ban scaring birds away or eating hamburgers.
15:18 December 15, 2012 by raandy
Steve1949, brilliant, your analogy sets a new standard.
15:32 December 16, 2012 by Berlin fuer alles
It is the castrating without anesthetic that troubles me more than anything. If I were a pig and I had to choose I think I would agree to the bestiality before the castration option.
22:14 December 16, 2012 by raandy
Berlin fuer alles your getting off the subject here good buddy, we are comparing branding to bestiality , castration know that is a whole new level. Even I winch when the word is spoken.
22:25 December 16, 2012 by grazhdanin
why wait 6 years?
07:24 December 19, 2012 by Ernst Grafenberg
Any German upset about bestiality being banned can apply for Belgian citizenship maybe, like Gerard Depardieu has done. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was still legal there.

Those three guys in America were going to castrate Justin Bieber with hedge clippers, weren't they, and wanted $2500 for each testicle. His voice having only recently dropped would then go really high again.
00:46 December 24, 2012 by owlguard
LoL, some of you are funner than the 3 stooges. You are worried about how the pig feels when he is castrated? LoL, how about when we eat him! Reminds me of a joke about the chicken and the pig. Both were involved in creating the famers breakfast but one was committed.
19:50 February 1, 2013 by Steve1949
Basically in this day of age it's amazing that there wasn't a law already in place about bestiality. The new German capital is certainly living up to the old standards. Maybe there will be a fourth Reich after all.
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