In 2021, Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie blocked the Plukon chicken slaughter factory in Gudensberg near Kassel (report in German). Now, more than three years after the action, one person is on trial for their commitment against exploitation, climate destruction and animal suffering.
Our regional group in northern Hesse organized a solidarity rally on December 18th to mark the start of the trial in Kassel. We say, put an end to the repression!
On 29 March, we will be demonstrating against Bavaria’s largest cattle slaughterhouse in Waldkraiburg (east of Munich)!
The meat company Vion currently has around 4,200 cattle slaughtered there every week. Following Vion’s withdrawal from Germany, Tönnies now wants to take over the slaughterhouse. The takeover would make Tönnies the undisputed number one in the cattle market – and expand its corporate power even further. Tönnies already stands for profit at the expense of people, animals and nature. Such a takeover must not happen! We say: Stop the exploitative animal industry and the power of Tönnies!
The animal industry thrives on animal exploitation, the exploitation of workers and the destruction of our environment. Tönnies and Vion are just two faces of a system. It is time to fundamentally change this system. For an agriculture that respects people, animals and the environment and produces good food for everyone.
Text on image: “Stop destroying our planet. Stop EU-Mercosur, more than 395 organizations say”
For years, the EU and several South American countries negotiated the EU-Mercosur agreement without success. The EU is currently pushing for it to be signed again. There is strong resistance from agrarian change and environmental organizations as well as small farmers in Europe and South America. In a joint declaration, over 400 organizations worldwide are calling for the agreement to be stopped.
We as the alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie” have also signed the declaration. This deal would only reinforce neo-colonial continuities. This includes European imports of soy for animal feed for the German animal industry as well as the mass import of beef.
Those who benefit of the neoliberal agreement are the large international agribusiness corporations. The victims are not only small farms in Europe but also small farmers, indigenous peoples and quilombola communities in South America, who are constantly affected by land grabbing, displacement and physical violence.
There is also no doubt that the agreement would fuel the destruction of ecosystems for the monocultures and cattle ranches of agribusinesses. So, get rid of it!
Read the explanation and background: https://europeantradejustice.org/eu-mercosur-nov2024
Soy production for feeding the (German) livestock industry is responsible for land grabbing, displacement and deadly conflicts in South America. This is confirmed in detail in the report “Violence against the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil”, with a focus on indigenous groups in Brazil.
Among those affected are the Guajajara, Guarani-Kaiowá, Munduruku, Kaingang, Ava-Guarani, Kanela Memortumre indigenous groups. This means that in addition to the deforestation of the rainforest and the Cerrados, the existential threat to indigenous population groups in the Global South is also a direct neo-colonial impact of the livestock industry.
Just a few weeks ago, Deutsche Umwelthilfe published a similar study, accusing meat companies such as Tönnies, Westfleisch and Rothkötter of concealing their responsibility for the destruction and displacement through non-transparent trade chains.
Summary of the report (in German): https://cimi.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/kurzfassung-gewalt-indigenen-volker-brasilien-2023-cimi.pdf
The entire report (in English): https://cimi.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/report-violence-against-indigenous-peoples-brazil-2023-cimi.pdf
At the German Meat Congress 2024 in Mainz at the end of November, the German meat industry will come together to talk about its “existential challenges” and otherwise pat each other on the back.
Of course, the Tönnies Group is not to be missed and sends Maximilian Tönnies to the podium to talk about everything but the meat company’s exploitation regime. Dialogue with the public is not desired, and with a regular admission price of €1,650, the corporate elites are likely to keep to themselves.
However, an alliance of climate justice, environmental and animal rights groups will ensure that the event does not run as smoothly as planned. Protest actions have already been announced in front of the Rheingoldhalle and in Mainz city center. The protests will kick off with a panel discussion on November 25 about the future of the meat industry.
Current information, dates of protest actions and more can be found at the Kolibri-Kollektiv: https://kolibri-kollektiv.net/fleischkongress
Are you campaigning against the animal industry or want to become active? Perhaps you would like to find out what the animal industry has to do with your activism? Or just want to network with other activists from the region?
At our get together, we would like to give you the opportunity to do so and provide insight into our intersectional activism and our current actions against the meat giant Tönnies.
On Friday, November 22nd, we invite you to the West of Leipzig at 7 pm. We look forward to meeting you, whether you are already active against the animal industry, want to become active or just want to drop by! There will be vegan food and drinks.
The power of Tönnies must not be allowed to grow! That’s why on November 8 we blocked the access roads to a leather factory that Tönnies wants to take over from the Vion meat group for several hours.
The Tönnies system must finally end! Instead, the group wants to expand its market power by taking over several Vion sites: further slaughterhouses, but also cutting plants and the leather factory in Memmingen – Tönnies just can’t get enough.
Together with 20 activists, we held sit-in blockades in front of the gates of the leather factory and demonstrated loudly. Several people chained themselves together and the blockades were only broken up by the police after 5 hours.
We demand an agricultural system and textile production beyond animal production and capitalism without environmental pollution and exploitation of humans and animals!
Huge quantities of soy are still being imported from South America for the German animal feed industry.A study by Deutsche Umwelthilfe and the environmental organizations Mighty Earth and Client Earth once again shows how soy cultivation in Brazil is linked to the destruction of nature, human rights violations and large-scale deforestation.Profiteers include Tönnies, Westfleisch and poultry meat company Rothkötter.
Despite all voluntary commitments, the companies continue to profit from soy cultivation on destroyed areas of the Brazilian wet savannah (Cerrado). However, imports take place along non-transparent trade chains. The study accuses the agricultural trading company Bunge of ignoring the destruction of nature and human rights violations such as the displacement of the local rural population in order to sell the soy to the German animal feed industry.
Tönnies & Co. are therefore partly responsible for neo-colonial exploitation and are also suspected of undermining the German Supply Chain Act. Since the beginning of 2024, companies have been obliged to ensure that human and children’s rights as well as environmental protection requirements are observed in supply chains (including at suppliers).
They, in turn, reject the accusations. In a Tagesspiegel article, Tönnies even accuses Deutsche Umwelthilfe of slander. Bunge and other wholesalers are merely “upstream suppliers for animals delivered to Tönnies”, so there is no need for action.
At the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Kellinghusen, we are taking a stand against Germany’s largest slaughterhouse and leading meat processor: under the motto “Together against Tönnies”, we are showing that we must put an end to the boundless suffering of animals, the exploitation of workers in slaughterhouses, the destruction of the environment, neo-colonial structures and the huge profits that Tönnies makes from all this destruction.
In Kellinghusen (near Hamburg), Tönnies slaughters over 5,000 pigs a day in the Thomsen slaughterhouse – according to its own information, the slaughterhouse has an annual slaughter capacity of up to 1.7 million animals. Animals that are fattened to maximum slaughter weight in the shortest possible time in the fattening facilities of industrial animal husbandry are killed here. This is exactly where we want to be loud!
You can find all the important information on how to get to the demonstration on the demo subpage. Come around!
Get to know each other, information, exchange, action planning – join us if you want to get involved in the alliance against the animal industry!
We want a different kind of agriculture and a food transition for the climate, animals and justice. We do public relations work, organize demonstrations and actions of civil disobedience. Together we can achieve more – we look forward to seeing you!
When? 25.03. at 6 pm Where? Thinkfarm (Oberlandstr. 26-35)
Why Tönnies now? Tönnies, Germany’s largest meat company, is an example of a system that exploits people, animals and the environment. We are taking a stand against this injustice and invite everyone to take action with us. Together against Tönnies!
Corona outbreaks, exploitation of workers, animal welfare scandals… these are just some of the buzzwords that are used when talking about Germany’s largest meat company: Tönnies Holding, based in Rheda-Wiedenbrück in North Rhine-Westphalia. The company and above all Managing Director Clemens Tönnies, who owns 45% of the company, are raking in huge profits while people, the environment and animals suffer as a result. We say: this must stop!
Tönnies must pay – compensation instead of profits Socialization of the Tönnies Group – democratization instead of capitalism Stop importing animal feed – climate justice instead of capitalism
