Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment
| Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Foundation, endowment |
| founding | 2000 in Munich |
| founder | Wolfgang Schindler |
| Seat | Munich |
| motto | Enthusiastic about animals |
| purpose | Animal welfare, animal rights |
| Chair | Mahi Klosterhalfen (managing director), Rolf Hohensee (director), Hans-Georg Kluge (director) |
| Employees | 37 |
| Website | albert-schweitzer-stiftung.de |
The Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our Mitwelt is an animal welfare and animal rights organization that is active throughout Germany and is particularly committed to the abolition of factory farming and the spread of the vegan way of life .
organization
The organization is a legal foundation under civil law , which was founded in 2000 by the lawyer Wolfgang Schindler, who died in 2013, in Munich as a non-profit foundation.
According to its own statements, it has been almost exclusively financed by donations since the death of its founder . She is a member of the Transparent Civil Society Initiative and has been preparing her annual reports since 2012 in accordance with the requirements of the Social Reporting Standard.
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk was the patron of the foundation for many years . Rhena Schweitzer-Miller , Albert Schweitzer's daughter , gave her the name. The foundation is based in Munich.
The management body is the executive board , which includes Mahi Klosterhalfen, Rolf Hohensee and Hans-Georg Kluge. The office of management is held by Mahi Klosterhalfen.
activity
The work of the Albert Schweitzer Foundation focuses on the use of animals as food . In doing so, in accordance with its statutes, it is based on Albert Schweitzer's guiding principle of "reverence for life". The foundation's activities mainly consist of negotiations with companies in the food industry , public information , traditional press and media work and, on a small scale, political lobbying . It also works within the framework of collective action for animal welfare organizations with organizations entitled to sue .
Corporate campaigns
- Cage free
As part of its cage-free campaign, the Foundation's aim is the production of eggs from caged hens and the trade to stop it. The foundation works with 14 partner organizations. On their website , the Foundation published lists where to industries listed companies are listed, use the no cage eggs more. In addition, the companies are named which, to the best of the Foundation's knowledge, continue to support cage management. According to her own statements, she has already been able to convince a number of supermarket and wholesale chains as well as over a hundred food producers to stop selling cage eggs.
Since 2010, the Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment has been campaigning for an end to the amputation of beaks in chicks . At the same time, it demands significantly better housing conditions for the hens. In Germany, beak shortening was practically abolished nationwide from 2017 by a resolution by the Association for Controlled Alternative Animal Husbandry (KAT).
- Foie gras stop
Together with other animal welfare and animal rights organizations, the foundation calls on German companies to stop the trade in foie gras products .
- Food progress
The foundation provides information on developments in animal welfare and in the area of vegan offerings on the Lebensmittel-fortstieg.de website. The site is also aimed directly at companies that are interested in raising their animal welfare standards and / or creating a range of vegetarian and vegan products.
Information campaigns
- Vegan Taste Week
The Vegan Taste Week project was launched in November 2014 by the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. This is a trial week in which the participants receive cooking recipes , practical tips and background information on the vegan lifestyle for a week via a daily newsletter . The associated information portal www.vegan-taste-week.de includes a recipe database, a vegan product overview and portraits of vegan people.
- Even-if brochure
The self-if brochure is the foundation's only print publication . It explains the effects of factory farming and provides background information on the vegan lifestyle. The foundation distributes the brochures via online orders , via the GrunzMobil tour and via its action groups (see below). According to the foundation, it has been printed two million times so far (as of spring 2017).
- GrunzMobil tour
Since 2011, active members of the Albert Schweitzer Foundation have been out and about in major German cities in a pig- shaped vehicle , the GrunzMobil . Films are shown on an integrated video screen that provide information about the consequences of factory farming and a vegan diet .
other activities
- Local action groups
The foundation's regional action groups are active at local events , distribute the self-if brochure and organize information stands . There are currently 36 action groups in Germany (as of spring 2017).
- Election test stones
Before the Bundestag and European elections , the foundation asks a selection of the candidate parties about their positions on various animal welfare issues. The answers are evaluated by the foundation and presented in tables .
- Bundestag petition
In 2014, the Albert Schweitzer Foundation collected more than 99,000 signatures for its petition »Abolish factory farming«. On the basis of the Animal Welfare Act , according to which no one may inflict pain, suffering or harm on an animal without a reasonable reason, she called for the abolition of factory farming. In December 2014, Mahi Klosterhalfen presented the petition to the Bundestag 's Petitions Committee and discussed it with the committee members. The European Parliament's Committee on Petitions has declared the petition admissible and started examining it. The committee also asked the European Commission to investigate the problems outlined. The issue was also forwarded to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) for information. (As of November 2016)
- Study on meat alternatives
In January 2017, the foundation published a study commissioned by the Institute for Alternative and Sustainable Nutrition on the nutritional-physiological evaluation of conventionally and organically produced vegetarian and vegan meat and sausage alternatives. A total of 80 meat alternatives were compared with 27 meat-containing products in terms of ingredients and nutritional values. The study comes to the conclusion that meat-free products are usually a healthier alternative to meat products, as they contain fewer unhealthy ingredients and have a more favorable nutritional composition. The study can be viewed and downloaded as a PDF document.
Achievements and Awards
According to the foundation, one of its successes is the enforcement of the ban on conventional battery cells by Wolfgang Schindler before the Federal Constitutional Court . In addition, according to her statements, negotiations with food retailers have resulted in caged eggs no longer being sold there. In addition, the foundation was able to convince several companies to end the trade in foie gras products.
In 2014, the Albert Schweitzer Foundation was selected by the Animal Charity Evaluators organization among 155 animal rights and animal welfare organizations around the world in the top 7 particularly recommendable organizations (standout charities). In 2018 and 2019 it was recognized as one of the four top charities.
Universal life
In March 2012, animal rights activist Colin Goldner published an article on the Albert Schweitzer Foundation's website, which called for serious animal rights movements to be more clearly demarcated from groups that use animal rights only as a cover for sect-like religious or right-wing extremist sentiments and to prevent them from infiltrating them. Among these he counted among other things " Universal Life ".
In 2007, the founder Wolfgang Schindler, on the occasion of a demonstration on the abolition of hunting on March 31, 2007 in Munich, in his greeting read by Barbara Rütting, said the following:
“I have admired the great commitment of Universal Life in the field of animal welfare for years. If any religious community impresses me, it is Universal Life. With great tolerance, persuasive work is tirelessly done here. "
Goldner's article sparked a storm of protest, which led to the foundation finally taking the article offline in order to be able to “calmly check” according to its own statement, whether the article contained “statements that exceeded the limits of what is legally permissible exceed and give rise to liability risks for us ”. As the foundation later discovered, Goldner's contribution was legally unobjectionable, but some of the comments made by readers of the article were.
Goldner's contribution, however, was not activated again, as one did not want to "run the risk of a lengthy and expensive legal dispute".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The team of the Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment. In: Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment. Retrieved on May 25, 2020 (German).
- ^ The Foundation, List of Foundations
- ^ Transparency International Deutschland eV, members of the Transparent Civil Society Initiative ( Memento from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation, statutes
- ↑ Animal Rights Watch eV, veterinary authorities thwart the implementation of the right to take legal action against animal protection by breaking the law
- ↑ gv-praxis, cage-free campaign: Top caterers forego caged eggs
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation, cage-free
- ↑ Ruhr faces, The Executive Board of the Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our contemporary world in an interview with the Ruhr faces
- ^ Federation against Abuse of Animals eV, shortening the beak of laying hens is practically abolished nationwide
- ↑ Four Paws, Foie Gras Stop Alliance ( Memento from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Food Advancement
- ↑ Vegan Taste Week
- ↑ Codecheck.info, Live vegan? The Vegan Taste Week will give you a taste
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation: Self-If brochure. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Veggie-Kids, Gruntmobile educates teenagers
- ↑ SWR Landesschau, Grunzmobil in Ulm on behalf of the pig
- ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine, Grunz-Mobil against factory farming
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation, Getting Active for Animals
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation, election test stones
- ^ Recording of Mahi Klosterhalfen in the petitions committee of the Bundestag
- ↑ Kochwelt, Meat alternatives in the test: Mostly healthier than meat ( Memento from March 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Albert Schweitzer Foundation, meat alternative study
- ^ Animal charity Evaluators, Announcing our 2019 Charity Recommendations
- ↑ a b Doggennetz.de ( Memento from May 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b GreatApeProject.de
- ↑ Colin Goldner: Soften the stone heart of infinity . Alibri Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-86569-014-9 , Animal Rights and Esotericism - A Critique.
- ^ Greeting from Wolfgang Schindler ( Memento from October 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Goldner article after removal ( Memento from November 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )