The Horse 2023

At the beginning of this project we didn't know that large image files are bad for the environment. We also learned a lot about animal rights. It was interesting to visit a local farm and also interview several people from a farm and animal welfare organisations.

We suggest that we pay attention to what we buy and buy meat wisely. Public awareness of improvements in livestock welfare should be pushed forward, like the motto "Do good and talk about it". It is to be hoped that the EU and the USA will take the Swiss animal protection as an example. If everyone did this, all living beings and nature would be a little better off. Quality comes before quantity. It's never too late to start.

Ella Zingg and Michelle Weber

Due to privacy concerns, we as a team have decided to not publish any picture of the team members.

We hope that this is acceptable.

Animal Welfare Team

[Animal protection is education to humanity]

[Self-made header picture = "big intro picture", Photo, Drawing, Cartoon]

[Short Intro: Research question, highlights of the article]

Animal welfare is an important topic today. In this article we focus on livestock farming (Nutztierhaltung). A farm animal is an animal that is used economically by humans because of certain abilities or for aesthetic reasons. The vision of the World Animal Protection Society is a world in which animals are perceived by people and treated with respect and in an animal-friendly manner. Animal welfare begins with people. 

[Main body]

[Methodology] As mentioned before, our methods were interviews, surveys and a lot research in the internet. 

The texts about the animal welfare in Switzerland, the EU and USA will also follow.

[Picture gallery with captions (Bildbeschriftung)]

The picture gallery follows afterwards.

[Survey results, Graphics, tables, etc.]

The survey results will follow.

[Experience, Reflection]

[Insights, experience, conclusion, tips for future teams, technical advice, etc.]

At the beginning of this project we didn't know that large image files are bad for the environment. We also learned a lot about animal rights. It was interesting to visit a local farm and also interview several people from a farm and animal welfare organisations. 

We suggest that we pay attention to what we buy and buy meat wisely. Public awareness of improvements in livestock welfare should be pushed forward, like the motto "Do good and talk about it". It is to be hoped that the EU and the USA will take the Swiss animal protection as an example. If everyone did this, all living beings and nature would be a little better off. Quality comes before quantity. It's never too late to start.

[Ella Zingg and Michelle Weber]

[1] Source links (external links, new window)

[Internal links]

The following informations we got from wikipedia and several online websites. 

Animal welfare in the USA

The Animal Welfare Act in the United States regulates the treatment of animals which are kept in research facilities or zoos at the national level. It's called the "Animal Welfare Act" (AWA) and has existed since August 24, 1966.

Unfortunately, there is no corresponding national law for the husbandry and treatments of livestock farming.[1]

Slaughtering

In the USA, there has been a law since 1958 that farm animals must be stunned before slaughter to minimize pain.

Hühner, Truthähne und Vögel sind jedoch nicht in diesem Gesetz enthalten. Weshalb diese Tiere anders empfinden als andere Nutztiere ist unklar. [2]

Transport

In the USA, livestock farming can be transported without food or water for 28 hours. Loading or unloading can increase the total time to 36 hours. This law has existed since 1873.

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.de/tiere/2021/08/schwein-gehabt-neues-gesetz-koennte-die-fleischproduktion-in-den-usa-revolutionieren

[2] https://www.nal.usda.gov/animal-health-and-welfare/humane-methods-slaughter-act#:~:text=The%20Humane%20Methods%20of%20Slaughter,and%20Inspection%20Service%20(FSIS)

The following informations we got from wikipedia and several online websites. 

Animal welfare in the EU

Animal welfare in the EU is not controlled and not sanctioned. Animal welfare is a foreign word in many EU countries. 

Outside of Switzerland, many countries rely on cheap, mass and surplus production. The animal welfare guidelines of the EU only cover individual aspects or animal categories.

There are no animal welfare guidelines in the EU for keeping cows, cattles, turkeys, ostriches, all types of poultry except chickens, sheep, goats and horses.

In many EU countries, there are hardly any inspections of husbandry systems and stable facilities. Farmers who do not comply face little to no sanctions. [1]

Transport

Millions of animals are transported across Europe every day, mainly by truck, sometimes even by ship overseas. Approximately 1.5 billion animals are being transported in Europe every year.

Since 1977 there is a law to protect the animals during the transport in the EU, but the animals are not really protected because this law doesn't set a time limit for the transport. 

In addition, the statutory space requirements are too tight. The animals can hardly lie down to rest. [2]

[1] https://www.diegruene.ch/artikel/tierhaltung/nutztierschutz-schweiz-eu-kontrollen-sanktionen-392741

[2] https://www.animals-angels.de/projekte/tiertransporte/europaeische-union.html

The following informations we got from wikipedia and several online websites and from the interviews. 

Husbandry and production

Animal-friendly husbandry and care of farm animals form the basis for a good animal health. It is the basis for efficient agriculture and the production of safe food for us humans. Livestock farming is the first link in the production chain of animal food. A central task of all farmers is to maintain the health of their animals and to prevent diseases. [1]

Livestock facilities

Livestock facilities are periodically checked for animal welfare regulations. With animal-friendly barn equipment you avoid damage and illnesses and promote the well-being of the animals. Therefore, the Animal Welfare Act stipulates that mass-produced barn equipment and housing systems require offical approval. [1]

Factory farming initiative (Massentierhaltungsinitative)

On 25.09.2022 the Swiss voters voted on the factory farming initiative (Massentierhaltungsinitiative). The initiative was rejected with 63 percent. The initative wanted to include the protection of the dignity of farm animals such as chickens or pigs in the constitution. It also wanted to ban factory farming. [2]

Transport

A maximum time of 8 hours is permitted for livestock transports within Switzerland. The travel time from the loading area is under 6 hours. Animals may only be transported if it can be expected that they will survive the transport without damage. The driving style must protect the animals. [3]

Slaughtering and killing of animals

If the treatment of sick or injured animals is futile or only possible with great pain, they should be killed to limit the suffering. The chosen method of killing must also lead to the certain death of the animal. [4]

Hunger for meat

"Meat is the Swiss' favorite vegetable." (Fleisch ist des Schweizers liebstes Gemüse). In 2021, a total of 494'614 tons of slaughtered meat was produced. Pork (Schweinefleisch) accounted for around 230'000 tons, beef (Rindfleisch) almost 120'000 tons and poultry (Geflügelfleisch) a good 112'000 tons. Meat production costs 2.9 billion Swiss francs. The annual meat consumption of a person of the Swiss population is 51.82 kilograms. 

The Swiss population's need for meat cannot be covered by home production. We are dependent on importing meat from abroad. [5]

[1] https://www.blv.admin.ch/blv/de/home/tiere/tierschutz/nutztierhaltung.html

[2] https://www.bk.admin.ch/ch/d/pore/va/20220925/index.html

[3] https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2008/414/de

[4] https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2008/414/de

[5] https://www.agrarbericht.ch/de/produktion/tierische-produktion/fleisch-und-eierproduktion

We already used a survey tool and did a few interviews per E-Mail and we also used the platform instagram. We decided to do our interviews in written form and not by audio because they could answer the question with time and consider their answers and maybe also rewrite them. 

We could image to record an audio as an additional medium. 

In the future we will add more pictures to visualize our project with the animals and the farms. 

We could refer to newspaper articles that have already been created by organisations and journalists. 

In the end we will write an article about our animal welfare project and post it on dontwastemyenergy.ch.

From 22.03. until 25.03.2023 we did an online survey on umfrageonline.ch. 100 selected people took part in this survey. Of the 100 respondents, 60 were under 20, 20 were between 20 and 30 and the remaining 20 are over 30 years old. 9 of the respondents eat vegetarian and the rest eats also meat. 

The first question was, how important animal welfare is to them in relation to the food they consume. 69 % pay attention to special labels and 31 % just buy something.

The following question was, if they are willing to spend more money on animal products for the welfare of animals. They answered yes with 85 % and the rest isn't willing to spend more money on animal products.

Another question was that they compare the Swiss livestock farming to the EU and USA. The surveyed think that the Swiss livestock farming is with 76 % better than the EU and with 80 % better than the USA. 5 % think that the Swiss livestock farming is as well as the EU and USA. Nobody thinks that it is worse than the EU or USA.

The fourth question was, if they think that animal welfare in Switzerland can still be improved. And of course 84 % think that this is possible but 16 % also think that it's enough. 

The next question was, how many kilograms of meat do they think they consume per year. 12 % think that they consume more than 100 kg. 15 % think that they consume between 70 - 99 kg. 34 % think that they consume between 50 - 70 kg and 39 % think that they consume less than 50 kg.

And last but not least we asked them, if they think that the demand for meat can fully be covered by domestic production. 26 % answered that with a Yes and 74 % with a No. 

We focus on livestock farming (Nutztierhaltung). A farm animal is an animal that is used economically by humans because of certain abilities or for aesthetic reasons. 

The vision of the World Animal Protection Society is a world in which animals are perceived by people and treated with respect and in an animal-friendly manner. Animal welfare begins with people. 

Animal welfare refers to all human activities aimed at enabling animals to live a life appropriate to their species without causing suffering, pain, harm and unnecessary impairments. With a few exceptions, the Animal Welfare Act in Switzerland applies to vertebrates (Wirbeltiere) such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (Säugetiere). [1] 

The Animal Welfare Act in Switzerland protects the welfare and dignity of animals. Serious breaches violations of its regulations may result in a ban on keeping, breeding and dealing with animals as a profession.

Since April 1, 2003, animals are no longer legally considered as objects in Switzerland. According to Art. 641a 1 of the ZGB, they are now regarded as sentient and suffering beings. However, they have no actual rights and obligations that are legally enforceable. [2]

Animal protection was anchored in the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1973 (Art. 80 BV). The Animal Welfare Act (TschG) followed in 1978, which came into force with the Animal Welfare Ordinance of 1981 and has since been revised several times. [3]

Ella Zingg and Michelle Weber

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierschutz

[2] https://www.tierimrecht.org/de/recht/rechtsauskunfte/tiere-sind-keine-sachen/

[3] https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1999/404/de

Today we figured out some questions for our online survey on umfrageonline.ch.

Questions:

• Are you vegan or vegetarian?
• How important is animal welfare to you in relation to the food you consume?
• Are you willing to spend more money on animal products for the welfare of animals?
• Swiss livestock farming in comparison to the EU and USA: Better than Switzerland or worse?
• Do you think that animal welfare in Switzerland can still be improved?
• How many kilograms of meat do you think you consume per year?
• Do you think that the demand for meat can be fully covered by domestic production?

The survey took place last week from the 22.03. - 25.03.2023 for 100 chosen people. We will share the results later.

Welcome to our project - Animal welfare!

Do you know what the animal rights in Switzerland are?

We will tell you all about the rights, the transport and the positive things too!

Stay tuned!