Animal husbandry; implementation of animal welfare controls

According to the Animal Welfare Act, a large number of facilities and animal husbandries (e.g. livestock farms, slaughterhouses, laboratory animal facilities) must be regularly inspected to ensure compliance with legal animal welfare requirements.

Inspections are also permitted without concrete suspicion. Private animal husbandry is subject to inspection by the veterinary office in the event of suspicion.

The following are subject to supervision by the competent authority

• Livestock holdings, including horse holdings,
• Commercial riding and driving establishments
• Establishments that transport animals on a commercial basis,
• Pet shops,
• animal fairs
• Circuses and animal shows,
• Animal shelters and similar establishments,
• Organizations that import vertebrate animals (except farm animals) from abroad and sell or broker them for a fee,
• Professional dog trainers,
• Commercial controllers of vertebrates as pests
• Zoological gardens,
• Establishments where animals are slaughtered,
• Establishments where
  • animal experiments are carried out,
  • experimental animals are bred,
  • vertebrate animals are used for the purposes specified in Section 6 para. 1 sentence 2 no. 4 of the Animal Welfare Act or
  • vertebrate animals are killed for scientific purposes.

The authorities are authorized to issue the necessary orders to remedy conditions that violate animal welfare. These range from verbal orders to rectify identified deficiencies to the removal of animals and the initiation of fine proceedings.

Administrative court action