For World Animal Day
on 4.10.2022
Animals cannot speak for themselves, so it is important to give them a voice. They were the first creatures on earth, they were domesticated and used as working animals. Many breeds of animals became man's farm animals or breeding animals for consumption.
An indescribable number of animals are raised, mostly, under undignified conditions and transported from live animal transporters to the slaughterhouse after reaching slaughter weight.
Why was World Animal Day established? October the 4th is the name day of Francesco d'Assisi, the patron saint of animals, nature and the environment. This International Day was introduced by the German animal rights activist and writer Heinrich Zimmermann in 1931.
International World Animal Day aims to remind people that industrial agriculture poisons soils and plantations and buildings destroy forests, overfishing wipes out oceans, and global warming makes vast areas uninhabitable.
"We humans are not the only ones with personality" - Jane Goodall
One of Gut Aiderbichl's largest and most significant projects was the takeover of ex-laboratory monkeys, with whom medical research had been carried out in an Austrian research center for around thirty years until the work was stopped in 1997. The terrible time in cramped cages was finally to come to an end for the apes.
Since 2009, the ex-lab monkeys have been under the protection of Gut Aiderbichl. Michael Aufhauser, founder of Gut Aiderbichl, enabled the great apes and animal monkeys to enjoy a small, new freedom in the outdoor enclosures of a former safari park in Gänserndorf.
Much has been researched, written and said...
until in 2009, in the presence of representatives of the Republic of Austria, the company Baxter, representatives of the municipality of Gänserndorf as well as Michael Aufhauser and Dieter Ehrengruber, the transfer contract for the animals from research was signed. 40 chimpanzees and 5 animal apes became part of our family and thus their continued life was secured.
In 2011, the outdoor enclosures for the ex-lab monkeys were completed and it was hoped that the chimpanzees would accept the climbing opportunities and the "new" nature, the new freedom where they could feel the sun, rain, snow and wind. It was and remains an unforgettable moment when a few of the ex-lab monkeys took advantage of the situation and joyfully "screamed" to feel grass under their feet for the first time in their lives. They hugged each other and cried and were probably a little happy for the first time in their lives.
The rehabilitation of ex-lab monkeys will never be completed
The monkeys first had to learn social coexistence, because for years they had been locked individually in the cages. Slowly, groups were formed in which the monkeys live together harmoniously. Their behavior is often skeptical, cautious, wait-and-see...the slightest mistake can be enough to undo all the painstaking work of the keepers.
For years, there have been orderly daily routines with breakfast distribution, playing with balls, jute sacks, old bedding, etc. The same as with the breakfast distribution, lunch and dinner are also distributed by calling by name.
The caretakers observe and film the animals in order to recognize and improve behavioral patterns, and to identify and settle disputes among the monkeys.
We are in their debt
The young monkeys were snatched from their parents by wild catchers, taken away from their home, put into far too narrow cages, their bodies used for drug research.
The animals suffered pain and agony in the service of mankind. What does man, who is himself descended from apes, allow himself? We cannot make up for what we do to all the animals in experiments, on chains, in breeding stables or in war zones.
That is why we need this annual International World Animal Day. No one should shirk responsibility for what is done to animals, our best friends.
As long as we have to protect the animals, we have achieved nothing.
Only when we no longer have to protect them, we will have reached our goal. Then we will have changed something: US. - Michael Aufhauser
Let's try to find a way together to live in respectful harmony with nature. Sincerely, your Gisela
