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HORSE

Thurgau’s rescued horses sold at auction

A public sale of 93 mistreated horses from a farm in Thurgau resulted in most of the animals being sold amid high public interest.

Published: 17 August 2017 16:29 CEST
Thurgau’s rescued horses sold at auction
Not one of the horses. File photo:IgorVetushko/Depositphotos

Around 500 people turned up for the auction at Schönbuhl army barracks in the canton of Bern on Thursday, 20 Minuten reported.

It said demand was so great that lots had to be drawn for some of the horses.

The sale was by auction with the maximum price being 500 francs over the animal’s estimated value.

The horses, including foals, were among 300 animals confiscated from the farm on August 7th after pictures published in newspaper Blick showed severely malnourished and mistreated horses at the property. 

Since then the animals have been cared for by recruits at the Swiss army's veterinary training centre in Schonbühl. 

The defence ministry tweeted earlier this week that the horses were on the road to recovery.

As the army centre could not house the animals beyond August 18th the Thurgau cantonal veterinary service decided to put them up for sale.

Opening the sale, the auctioneer said the aim was to give the animals back their dignity. 

The speed of the sale angered some animal welfare groups, including Animal Protection Switzerland (PSA). 

The Swiss news agency SDA said animal rights activists had purchased some of the animals, angering private buyers who felt they had no chance.  

RELIGION

Tensions mount in German Catholic Church over abuse report

Pressure increased on Friday on a powerful German Catholic archbishop who has for months blocked the publication of a report about alleged sexual abuse of minors by members of his diocese.

Published: 30 January 2021 10:10 CET
Tensions mount in German Catholic Church over abuse report
Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Archbishop of Koin, at the autumn plenary assembly of the German Bishops' Conference in the City Palace. September 2020: Picture alliance / DPA | Arne Dedert

In a rare public rebuke, the diocese council of the western city of Cologne, which groups clergy and laypeople, sharply criticised Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki, saying he had “completely failed as a moral authority”.

“We find ourselves in the biggest crisis that the Church has ever experienced,” Tim Kurzbach, head of the council, said in a statement.

“Those responsible must finally also take responsibility. We need clarity now. Otherwise we have no chance of getting out of this misery.”

Woelki, a conservative who has resisted Church reform efforts, has faced criticism for months for refusing to allow the publication of an independent study on abuse committed by clergy in his diocese, the country's largest, between 1975 and 2018.

Victims have expressed anger and disappointment about his stance.

Woelki has justified his decision by citing a right to privacy of the alleged perpetrators accused in the report, carried out by a Munich law firm, and what he called a lack of independence on the part of some researchers.   

In early November, the diocese of the western city of Aachen published its own study prepared by the same law firm.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference and released in 2018 showed that 1,670 clergymen had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014.

However its authors said the actual number of victims was almost certainly much higher.

The revelations, which mirror paedophile scandals in Australia, Chile, France, Ireland and the United States, prompted Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a prominent reformer, to apologise on behalf of the German Catholic Church.

The Church currently pays victims an average sum of 5,000 euros ($6,067) “in recognition of their suffering”, as well as covering their therapy fees.

In September 2020, German bishops agreed that victims would be entitled to payouts of up to €50,000 each and an independent committee would be set up to examine complaints and decide on payouts from January 1st, 2021.

READ ALSO: German Catholic Church to pay abuse victims up to €50,000

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