Großweiler municipal council: Rejection of the memorial for dead fish

Großweil - The Großweil municipality is not erecting a memorial for the recently perished fish in a local fish farm.

Animal rights activists wanted the memorial.

The sight was gruesome.

Hundreds of fish were floating on the surface of the water that October day.

Around 12,000 dead trout and char.

The inlet to two basins of a Großweiler fish farm had been blocked by a kind of dam.

There was a shortage of fresh water and oxygen.

The animals died away.

The animal rights organization Peta then wanted to erect a memorial for the dead fish (Rundschau reported. However, the community decided against it.

Letter from Peta

A monumental block of stone, a freshly shaped statue or a simple stele?

Anything would have been possible.

Because how exactly the required monument, which is supposed to remind of the dead fish in the two Großweiler fish breeding tanks, could look like, is not defined in the letter from Peta to the community Großweil.

Mayor Frank Bauer (FWG) reads the letter in which Dr.

Tanja Breining, Peta specialist for fish and marine animals, is quoted again.

The inscription, however, is defined in more detail, it could read something like: “In memory of 12,000 fish who died in agony here.

Please live vegan. ”At least that's what the letter suggests.

Unanimous tenor

In its most recent local council meeting, the committee discussed the demand. In the end, "the tenor was unanimous," said the town hall chief. Bauer announced a few days after the meeting that he had already informed the Peta specialist advisor by telephone about the municipality's decision. “In general, from our point of view, there will be no memorial,” says the mayor. The municipality does not want to offer the vegan organization a platform. The decision was by no means taken lightly, emphasizes Bauer. They did a lot of research and talked intensively. But it was precisely the detailed gathering of background information that led to the clear decision: the research was compiled and a decision was made on the basis of it, explains the mayor, who, in excerpts from this research, from media reports,reads out and quotes headlines, for example about the deliberate bringing about the death of animals. Research that seems to have raised doubts.

Protection at ponds planned

Nevertheless, something will be erected at the fish ponds - not a monument, but rather a kind of protective device.

They plan to put up a fence together with the fish farmer, says Bauer.

A sign should also point out the basins and the animals living in them.

Because from the point where the blockade was erected, “the ponds cannot be seen,” emphasizes the mayor.

He believes that then, in that place, at that time, all unfavorable circumstances came together and led to the tragic fish deaths.