Devastating Conditions Discovered on Farm: Children at Risk, Animals Neglected

The four children had to live in an environment that the police described as "severely neglected" and dirty. Horses were emaciated and injured, a bitch was paralysed in the hind legs and had open wounds. The German couple has since moved back to their home country.

The police and authorities had been investigating the couple in the Weiz district for exactly one year, the state police directorate announced on Friday. The allegations range from multiple animal cruelty and environmental endangerment to suspicion of child endangerment. As the investigations revealed, the suspects had already been in the focus of the authorities in Lower Austria due to similar allegations. A local farm there was abandoned in 2022 after several reports. The couple now also face numerous charges and criminal consequences in Styria.

Eastern Styria: Children Lived in Garbage

The four children - two are said to be biological, two foster children - lived in rooms with garbage, dirt and clutter. Two slept together in the bed of the cluttered and messy children's room, the other two in the bunk bed of a cluttered passageway room. Officers found vermin on dirty dishes with food leftovers. Offers of support or help were only sporadically accepted or even rejected. In addition, the parents partly refused to cooperate in the risk assessment of child and youth welfare, by going to Germany with the children towards the end of last year. The German authorities have already been extensively informed about the proceedings and the risk factors.

Officers from the St. Margarethen an der Raab inspection, in cooperation with environmental investigators from the Styria State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and the Weiz district administration, had been investigating the couple. The trigger was an anonymous report of suspected inadequate animal husbandry at the couple's farm. Initial inspections in January 2024 with the veterinary as well as the environmental and agricultural department of the BH confirmed serious deficiencies that continued for months. This was accompanied by unpaid veterinary bills. Several horses stood in up to 30 centimetres of filth in the stable and suffered severely from neglected hoof care.

Animals Emaciated and Injured

On grazed and flooded paddocks, authorities found emaciated and injured horses, including a former dressage horse with painful, purulent hoof abscesses. Dogs were kept in dark and faeces-contaminated rooms, in an earth cellar, in a small heating room and in a dog box. A bitch had open wounds and paralysis in the hind legs. In total, the authorities came across about 100 chickens and two sheep, and gradually nine dogs and 25 horses. Despite multiple official requirements, the animals were often taken to unknown places and hidden there from inspections. Several animal seizures were the result. The couple fought imposed animal keeping bans up to the state administrative court (LVwG). Furthermore, a large manure heap polluted the soil and water due to leaking liquid manure. This was accompanied by dangers from collapsed buildings and large amounts of combustible waste at a heating room.

(APA/Red)

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