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New animal welfare law
In June 1995 the German Government, represented by the Minister for Agriculture, began a new attempt to reform the Animal Welfare Act, which is still in progress. In 1994 a proposed amendment had been stopped by the Bundesrat because of heavily diverging opinions on animal welfare between the Government, the Parliament and the German States. Therefore the new proposal is restricted to those issues which were not disputed between them. The new proposal included several changes which were friendly to research and neglected restrictions put forward by animal rights and welfare activists. Protest started at the first public hearing on 5 September 1995.
The Green Party (Bundnis90/Die Grunen), influenced widely by the claims of animal welfare organisations, then launched an amendment of their own, dating back to 21 July 1993, demanding a total ban on animal research.
The Social Democrats (SPD) presented their amendment for a new Animal Welfare Act on 29 September 1995, proposing many new bureaucratic restrictions for animal research. The final amendment of the Minister of Agriculture was presented to the public on 25 September 1996 and became a Cabinet decision on 16 October 1996. Then it was passed on to the Länder, who had few criticisms of this relaxation of restrictions for research.
The Government commented and passed the law on to the Parliament, which had a hearing of experts on 23 June of this year. Representatives of research organisations approved of the planned relaxations, but stated that they needed less bureaucracy. Their main argument was the waste of time while waiting for their approval for research even when there was no effect on the welfare of the animals. Since 1986, when the actual animal welfare law was made, the pace of research has changed: the internet has speeded up research and publications. Keeping the status quo therefore already causes harm to animal research in those cases where animals do not suffer. Animal welfare activists on the contrary wanted more limitations and restrictions to animal research. The committees will discuss the amendments in the Parliament. There is no decision expected before October 1997.
The original requirement to revise the Animal Welfare Act was the need to adopt some European regulations. The Green Party and the Social Democrats, controlling most of the 16 Länder, are in opposition to the Government, where Christian Democrats and Liberals have got the majority in Parliament. The attitude in the Länder to animal welfare is rather opportunistic and popular, and even in those Länder ruled by the Christian Democrats and Liberals, demands for more animal welfare restrictions on research and other uses of animals are quite limited.