24-hour campaign

Enduring agony to end the suffering of pigs

Nicole (left) and Sonja endure 24 hours of agonizing slatted floors in Innsbruck to draw attention to the suffering in animal husbandry.(Bild: Johanna Birbaumer)

Two animal rights activists are currently enduring 24 hours on painful slatted floors in the middle of Innsbruck to improve pig farming.

"It was impossible to lie comfortably and I hardly slept. When I moved, the friction on the slabs and slats caused skin abrasions. Afterwards, I had hematomas on my knees and pressure sores on my feet," recalls David from the Association Against Animal Factories (VGT) about his 24 hours on a fully slatted floor for pigs during a campaign in Vienna a few years ago.

The floor was terribly uncomfortable and the friction with the slats caused open sores and abrasions.

David vom Verein gegen Tierfabriken

Bild: Johanna Birbaumer

Animal rights activists protest in three provincial capitals
Little has changed since then: "The ban on fully slatted floors in pig farming was decided in 2022, but not in concrete terms and with a temporary interim solution including a transitional period of 23 years," the VGT is annoyed, "as the Constitutional Court annulled the deadline as too long at the beginning of January, it is currently neither clear when the end of fully slatted floors will be sealed, nor what the alternative should look like. We are virtually back to square one."

Protest in three provincial capitals
On the occasion of the upcoming national elections, animal rights activists are once again drawing attention to the issue - a few weeks ago in Klagenfurt, in mid-September in Linz and since Tuesday at 11 a.m. also in Innsbruck. Nicole and Sonja from Tyrol followed in the footsteps of their colleague David and spent a whole day in front of the Annasäule in the middle of the provincial capital on real fully slatted floors - with only short toilet breaks.

Animal suffering should become visible
"It is important to us to show people how the animals really fare on the slatted floors. We want to make animal suffering visible," emphasizes activist Nicole. According to the animal rights activists, only an increase in space and mandatory straw bedding can put an end to the pigs' suffering.

Emily Grüner and Samuel Thurner, Kronenzeitung