Shitstorm against Haribo: The confectionery company obtains gelatine from Westfleisch

The slaughterhouse is criticized because of animal cruelty allegations - hundreds of users react indignantly

19-Oct-2022 - Germany

A few weeks ago, the German Animal Welfare Office published footage from no less than seven Westfleisch supplier plants. The footage is shocking; sick, injured and even dead pigs were found in all of the plants. A medical treatment of ill animals did not take place obviously at all or insufficiently. In one farm in Lower Saxony, 70% of the animals had mostly bloody ringtail injuries. In other farms, sick animals were not provided with sufficient water and feed at night. Hidden cameras filmed how pigs were brutally herded onto transporters to the Westfleisch slaughterhouse using electric shocks, some of which were held in the animals' faces. Some of the farms even participate in the "Animal Welfare Initiative" and receive EU subsidies to keep animals better. "The list of misconduct is very long," said Jan Peifer, chairman of the German Animal Welfare Office. Immediately the veterinary offices were informed, which acted mostly fast, accomplished a control and found the bad states themselves. Partly the offices announced themselves criminal complaint.

Also the German animal protection office made a criminal complaint against all seven enterprises, whereby the public prosecutor's offices took up already in all cases the investigations. "Catastrophic conditions and breaches of the law were found in all farms. Animal cruelty has a system," says Peifer. On the Westfleisch website, individual supplier farms were presented in so-called "farm portraits," laughing into the camera and presenting the "farmer next door." The farms that were documented were selected via these farm portraits. After the pictures became known, Westfleisch took the farm portraits off the website and announced controls. "Whether these took place at all, nobody knows, because the slaughterhouse company is silent," says Peifer. Last week, Westfleisch was therefore awarded the "Prize of Heartlessness 2022". "Anyone who claims animal welfare but does nothing for animals really deserves the Prize of Heartlessness," says Peifer.

Westfleisch's customers also include Haribo from Bonn. For the production of its sweets, Haribo partly needs gelatine, which also comes from Westfleisch via an intermediary. "We contacted Haribo weeks ago and asked them to end the cooperation with Westfleisch, but the company does not draw any consequences," Peifer is outraged. A few days ago, the German Animal Welfare Office then used the association's own social media channels to call on Haribo to stop using gelatine from Westfleisch. "Hundreds of critical comments can be found on Haribo's Facebook and Instagram pages, but the corporation continues to stonewall," says Peifer. For example, users write: "Can you also produce something without animal torture", "Stop with products from animal torturers like Westfleisch!", "End your business relationship with Westfleisch!", "End the cooperation with Westfleisch and become gelatin-free".

The German Animal Welfare Office further calls on Haribo to stop its cooperation with Westfleisch. "The corporation must finally take responsibility, stop supporting animal cruelty and ideally stop using gelatine altogether," Peifer concludes.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1178160/shitstorm-against-haribo-the-confectionery-company-obtains-gelatine-from-westfleisch.html