Vienna/Graz/Oldenburg, June 11, 2026 — Two events within one week, a thousand kilometers apart, raise the same question: Who owns the Truth about animal suffering — the legislator, the agricultural lobby, or the public?

On June 9, 2026, the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg ruled that the activists Anna Schubert and Hendrik Haßel are liable and must pay damages to Brand Qualitätsfleisch. Image: Instagram/schlachthofprozess

Austria’s “Animal Cruelty Cover-Up Act”

With the votes of the ÖVP and the Greens, the National Council passed a comprehensive amendment to the Animal Welfare Act in July 2024, primarily tightening the ban on cruel breeding practices for pets. On paper, it sounds progressive. In practice, however, animal welfare organizations now have even more to do.

The reason lies in what the law deliberately omits. The opposition particularly criticized the fact that farm animals are not covered by the new regulations — and that the need for action regarding fully slatted floors in pig farming as well as animal transports continues to be ignored.

In other words: anyone who breeds a bulldog with respiratory problems will in future risk punishment. Yet anyone who lets millions of pigs spend their lives on concrete slatted floors continues to enjoy legal protection — explicitly so. A solution to banning fully slatted floors in pig farming is still pending, even though the Constitutional Court has already deemed the long transition period until 2040 unjustified.

It is a logic that animal rights activists have been denouncing for years: the suffering of pets generates public outrage and thus votes. The suffering of farm animals generates meat and thus lobby money.

Styria: SPÖ as Enabler

At the beginning of June 2026, something happened in the Styrian state parliament that left even experienced animal rights activists speechless. The parliament of that federal state — where, upon Upper Austria, the second-largest number of fully slatted floor factory farms is located, where over 730,000 pigs are kept, only five percent of which have ever seen a straw stalk, and where 1,025 fully slatted floor pig factories had to be reported by the VGT because they simply ignore the law — passed, with the votes of the ÖVP, FPÖ, and SPÖ, a resolution calling on the federal government to criminalize and imprison those who expose abuses.

VGT chairman Martin Balluch reacted angrily: “This is already approaching Putin-level. That the ÖVP would go along with it was unfortunately to be expected. Yet that the SPÖ is also acting as an enabler here for the criminalization of essential animal welfare work is disappointing and a disgrace.”

The logic is perverse yet clear: instead of forcing pig factories to comply with existing law, those who point out these violations are to be sent to prison. The criminals are protected; the whistleblowers are to be held liable.

The SPÖ, which likes to present itself as the party of the weak, has once again sided with the oppressors, upon the headscarf ban for schoolgirls.

Oldenburg: A Landmark Ruling

In spring 2024, activists from the animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch (ARIWA) entered the Brand slaughterhouse in Lohne (Vechta district) and installed hidden cameras at the CO₂ stunning facility. The videos caused a stir because pigs show strong defensive reactions for several seconds under this method of stunning.

On June 9, 2026, the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg ruled that the activists Anna Schubert and Hendrik Haßel are liable and must pay damages to Brand Qualitätsfleisch. The court thus essentially upheld the lower court’s decision and strengthened the rights of slaughterhouse operators vis-à-vis animal rights activists.

The legal reasoning is notable: CO₂ stunning is recognized by the legislator and must therefore, in principle, be accepted. Furthermore: anyone who believes they have identified animal welfare violations must turn to the competent supervisory or prosecuting authorities.

The court thus directs the activists to the very authorities that have approved what the activists filmed for decades.

The court did not allow an appeal. The activists theoretically have the option of filing a complaint against non-admission with the Federal Court of Justice and, if a violation of fundamental rights can be asserted, turning to the Federal Constitutional Court — a rocky path that can take years.

Critics put it succinctly: CO₂ stunning is only legal because the public is excluded. Because no one knows the images, the lobby prevents an informed debate.

Two Countries, One Method

Austria prohibits showing animals with cruel breeding traits for advertising purposes — yet protects the industry that keeps millions of farm animals daily under conditions no pet owner would ever tolerate. Germany protects the corporate personality rights of a slaughterhouse more than the public’s right to know how their schnitzel was produced. And Styria decides across party lines that Truth should be a crime.

Conclusion: They Are Breeding Whistleblowers

Those who criminalize Truth do not eliminate it — they push it underground. And the underground has its own proven methods: the whistleblower principle. Anonymous to the public, yet not to the press. Verified, documented, published — without any court ever receiving a name.

The decisions from Graz and the ruling from Oldenburg will therefore not produce fewer recordings from slaughterhouses. They will produce more whistleblowers. More professional. More untouchable. And backed internationally.

Act Now: Sign the Petition

The agricultural lobby wants to criminalize and punish the exposure of animal cruelty and civil society protest in front of factory farms through an Animal Cruelty Cover-Up Act. This must be prevented in the interest of the animals and of the people who cannot look away. These two association are fighting against it — and need your voice.

Sign the petitions now: www.vgt.at/de/petitionen/tierqualvertuschungsgesetz / www.schlachthofprozess.org

By Okay Altinisik | 12-6-2026, 9:50:29