Aims

Animal welfare aims

Wild animals

Wild animals are all animals which live in the wild and are not domesticated by human beings. They include birds, mammals and fish.

With regard to animal welfare it should be ensured that sufficient nature remains as a habitat for wild animals.

In areas where hunting is allowed hunting bans must be introduced and enforced at least for the times when the animals are giving birth to and raising their young. However, these bans should only apply for normal hunters.

Animals and people in the wild

People who have decided to live in the wild themselves and who are not vegetarians but live from the meat of animals they kill must be excluded from any hunting bans. Wild predatory animals also hunt at any time and so people living in the wild should not be denied this possibility or at least there should be suitable refuges or reservations for them. But people living in the wild should also make sure that they do not kill any mother animals which are raising their young.

Of course there must also be reservations for vegetarians living in the wild. Here it must be ensured that no outsiders can trespass on them for hunting.

In Europe there are at present (in 2010) hardly any possibilities for people to live wild in the forest. However, this should be possible in every country for it cannot be right for people to be discriminated over animals in this respect. Just as there are nature protection areas there should also be natural protection areas for people for all those willing and able to lead such a life in the wild temporarily or permanently.

You can find more about living in nature, if not about living in the wild, on the website www.sunfoodhome.com. 

Pets

Pets are above all dogs and cats but also many other animals which are domesticated such as guinea pigs, snakes, ornamental fish, tortoises, budgerigars, parrots and many others.

Pets are mainly regarded by people as companions and are often treated as members of the family. 

You should ensure that your pets have enough fresh air, exercise and fresh raw food free of toxins.

Here we direct an urgent appeal to dog owners in particular: please ensure that your dog does not harass, threaten or even injure any of your fellowmen. Love of animals does not mean that your fellowmen have to tolerate unreasonable behaviour from your pet!

Livestock

Livestock refers to domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cows, chickens, ducks, and pigs. They are kept to provide wool, leather, milk, eggs, and meat.

In the case of livestock, welfare means, above all, keeping them in a way appropriate to their species and using slaughtering methods as painless as possible. The animals need plenty of space for roaming out of doors, at all times fresh water – preferably pure spring  water –, feed mainly from wild plants and toxin-free farming and also suitable shelter particularly for the night and in winter. 

At this point we would like to expressly mention that there are also livestock owners who do not slaughter their domestic animals, e.g. cows or goats which provide milk, sheep which give wool and hens which lay eggs, but let them live until they die a natural death.

Aim and purpose of animal welfare

In our view, animal welfare should not aim to put animals on a par with human beings. We merely want to avoid unnecessary cruelty to animals and enable them to live a life as appropriate as possible to their species.

However, we clearly see the danger that as soon as animal welfare is recognized as a desirable goal by the public authorities, the army of bureaucrats will start abusing animal welfare as a pretext for satisfying the government’s irrepressible control addiction only so as to harass and restrict the citizens.

It is clear that the result of this would be the same as ever: the large unionised concerns – in this case more specifically large farms – would be able to continue ill-treating animals massively and en masse, while the army of bureaucrats pursue small farmers and ordinary citizens who might possibly even be treating their animals in an exemplary manner. It is expressly not our wish in this campaign to lend legitimacy to this widespread government practice of fighting good and supporting evil.