AfD on the environment and animal welfare

The AfD wants to cap transports of animals for slaughter within Germany at five hours of travel plus two hours of loading time. Animals should always be taken to the nearest slaughterhouse. Inspections and penalties are to be tightened.

The AfD wants shorter trips for animals going to slaughter. A trip should take five hours at most. Two more hours are allowed for loading. Animals should go to the nearest slaughterhouse. There should be more checks.

Transports to slaughter would be required to go to the closest slaughterhouse. Regional slaughterhouses that comply with animal welfare and animal disease rules are to receive support. Animal transports on Saxony's roads, especially transit traffic, are to be inspected more often. The state would pay for these inspections to relieve the counties. The program also calls for tougher sanctions for violations of animal welfare and animal disease rules.

The AfD wants to keep the ban on slaughter without stunning and to grant no exemptions in Saxony, including for religious reasons. At the same time, regional meat production and mobile slaughter are to be made easier.

Some animals are killed without being stunned first. The AfD wants to never allow this in Saxony. This should also apply to religious reasons. The AfD also wants to make local slaughter easier.

The program calls for official federal and state statistics on the number of animals slaughtered without stunning, including known illegal cases. Fees for official slaughter and meat inspections are to drop to the lowest level EU law allows. Mobile and partly mobile slaughter methods that meet animal welfare standards are to be used more widely and with less red tape.

The AfD wants to give Saxony's animal shelters more money. It plans a wage subsidy as well as more funds for feed and veterinary care.

The AfD wants to give animal shelters in Saxony more money. The state should pay part of the wages. There should be more money for food and vets.

Animal welfare associations would receive a 25 percent wage subsidy for staff who care for and feed animals. Funds for shelters' feed and veterinary costs are to increase. The AfD also wants to ensure uniform minimum standards for housing the animals.

The AfD wants to achieve nature conservation through near-natural use of cultivated landscapes and by leaving some sites unused. Farms and forestry businesses are to be paid long term for conservation services, with funding that is simple and results-based.

The AfD wants to protect nature together with farmers and foresters. Businesses should get money for protecting nature. Getting the money should be easy. More animals should graze on pastures again.

The program names as priorities the preservation and creation of habitats in open land, forests and waters, a statewide network of near-natural habitats, and species protection. Grazing livestock is to be supported and become a core part of conservation on grassland again. Private engagement, cooperation between conservationists and land users, advisory services and environmental education are to be strengthened. The AfD wants a debate on how effective and practical the EU's Natura 2000 network of protected areas is in Saxony.

The AfD considers the wolf no longer threatened with extinction in Saxony and wants to end its strict protection under EU law. The population is to be regulated through culling plans to protect grazing animals, pets and people in rural areas.

The AfD says there are enough wolves in Saxony. The wolf should no longer be strictly protected. Hunters should be allowed to shoot wolves under a plan. Animal owners should get money when a wolf kills their animals.

The current wolf management would be replaced by a comprehensive wildlife management system. In very sparsely populated areas, the AfD wants to designate core wolf zones, monitor the population there and introduce culling plans and closed seasons. Exact figures on the size and growth of the population are to be published. Residents of wolf areas, farmers, livestock owners and landowners are to be more involved. Losses from wolf attacks, follow-on damage and the cost of replacing grazing animals are to be reimbursed in full and with little paperwork.

The AfD wants to draw up a flood protection plan for large and small waterways, focusing on building or renovating retention basins and dikes. More rainwater is to seep into the ground on site to secure groundwater and prevent floods.

The AfD wants to protect Saxony better against floods. It wants to repair dikes and build retention basins. More rainwater should seep into the ground. Towns should get more money for their streams and rivers.

Permit procedures for flood protection are to become less bureaucratic. Compensation payments are planned for adapted farming of riverside meadows and dike areas and for reserved polder land. Municipalities would get more help maintaining smaller waterways, and local fire brigades would get extra flood training. The AfD backs the sponge city concept, more infiltration near sealed surfaces and small sewage treatment plants. Rivers would also be assessed by their suitability for their intended use, and drinking water supply is to be secured together with dam operators.