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Animal welfare in the constitution
For years animal rights activists have tried to make animal welfare part of the constitution. They claim that only this could make the animal welfare law powerful enough to really protect animals. Until now religion, science and art have been specifically protected by the German post-war constitution. This may allow the use of animals for special rituals, academic or artistic purposes despite the Animal Welfare Act.
The new Constitutions of three Länder all in the former Eastern Germany included animal welfare. Then Berlin followed and now this issue is seriously discussed in the Parliaments in Munich (Bavaria), Stuttgart (Baden-Wurttemberg) and Hannover (Lower-Saxony). The strategy of the animal rights movement is obvious: if the majority of Länder have got animal welfare in their constitutions, there is a greater chance to have the constitution of the Federal Republic (Grundgesetz) changed this way. In 1994, when the constitution was modified because of the unification with Eastern Germany, the animal rights movement failed to achieve this objective.
Media disinterest in animal research Currently, the media is not very interested in animal welfare issues, with the exception of slaughterhouse transportation, where a recent TV programme directly influenced the position of the Länder.
Animal research has hardly been criticised in the German media the last two years. Spiegel Special, a monthly single-issue magazine from the publisher of Spiegel, had only two moderate articles on research in this year s January issue, which broadly covers animal welfare. Some newspapers even printed positive stories about research and the work of animal welfare officers in universities in the last few months. Television programmes on animal research are rare, and in February an ex-animal liberator even said that, when he became ill, he would take drugs tested on animals.
The German public is no longer as interested in green issues and animal welfare as it was five years ago. The financial problems which arose from the unification with Eastern Germany are influencing the private economy of everyone by a special tax. The crisis in the social security system (health insurance, pensions, unemployment) keeps people - and the media - focused on the real problems.
These circumstances are very frustrating for animal rights activists. At an animal rights conference held in February in Braunschweig, spokes-people appealed for more internal communication and co-operation amongst the different groups. But the opposite is happening: left-wing autonomous animal rights activists openly criticised the organisers of an anti-vivisection demonstration in Frankfurt because they tolerated participants from a Christian party opposed to abortion as well as animal research.