Slaughterhouse Factory: Tönnies Occupied
German animal rights activists protested on Saturday, 4 July 2020, outside a slaughterhouse facility in North Rhine-Westphalia, where hundreds of workers tested positive for coronavirus the previous month, leading to local quarantines and shutdowns.
German animal rights activists protested on Saturday, 4 July 2020, outside a slaughterhouse facility in North Rhine-Westphalia, where hundreds of workers tested positive for coronavirus the previous month, leading to local quarantines and shutdowns.
Activists climbed onto the roof of the Tönnies slaughterhouse and processing plant and unfurled a banner reading «Shut down the animal industry». Demonstrators also blocked a major access road and demanded changes to current practices in the meat industry.
Around 600’000 people in the nearby town of Gütersloh were placed back under lockdown on 23 June after more than 1’500 workers at the slaughterhouse tested positive for COVID-19 .
Demand for Permanent Closure
«We are still in the middle of the pandemic,» says Isa Suhr of the Alliance Against the Animal Industry. «To protect workers and local residents, the slaughterhouse must remain permanently closed. But coronavirus is not the only problem: the animal industry causes enormous suffering for millions of sentient beings. Feed crop cultivation and animal farming are massively fuelling the climate crisis. The situation of workers in the German meat industry was already intolerable before the coronavirus crisis. Now is the moment to end this industry and immediately initiate the transition to a plant-based, solidarity-driven, and ecologically sound food production system.»
«The government is currently taking half-hearted measures at best. It apparently aims to keep the animal industry running no matter what», said Maya Keller, who had chained herself to the entrance. «To protect people and animals, there is no alternative but to occupy the slaughter factories. What is needed now is a mass movement: we must reclaim control over food production. Let us replace profit-driven meat corporations with democratically controlled, ecological, and cruelty-free production facilities!»
«The capitalist economic system makes a few people rich and causes enormous harm to many», Keller continued. «It subordinates the suffering of animals to the pursuit of profit, and it is on the verge of destroying this world as a whole. And yet there are alternatives! We must fight for them now: for a world of solidarity rather than one of exploitation and destruction.»
About the Alliance «Together Against the Animal Industry»
The alliance «Together Against the Animal Industry» is a cross-movement, supra-regional alliance that was founded at an action conference in July 2019. A planned action camp against the PHW Group in June 2020 in Lower Saxony had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 situation. The alliance demands the abolition of the animal industry and an agricultural transition towards a solidarity-based and ecological mode of production and organisation that does not come at the expense of others and is not profit-oriented. More on the topics of animal welfare issues and animal rights on wildbeimwild.com.
Three demonstrators were arrested, handcuffed, and taken to a police station in Gütersloh, the group announced on Twitter. More than 100 people took part in the demonstration.
«Activists have occupied the main site of the meat corporation #Tönnies. Members of the alliance Together Against the #AnimalIndustry climbed onto the roof of the slaughterhouse and blocked the entrance (…) The alliance is demanding the closure of the slaughterhouse.»#Tagesschau report: pic.twitter.com/TJUZQ44iou
— Together Against the Animal Industry (@GGTierindustrie) July 4, 2020
