The petition we initiated is making waves. Over 5,000 German horse breeders have signed the petition according to which animals are living beings and are naturally subject to change - unlike classic “dead” objects, which are rightly subject to property law. Since the petition as such is being actively dealt with in the Petitions Committee and a working group is currently being implemented for this purpose, it has obviously already had an effect on judges in the meantime.
In a spectacular trial at the court in Munich (Donaro II), which ran for 7 years, the case was referred back to the Higher Regional Court by the Federal Court of Justice. On the first day of the trial, the Higher Regional Court made it clear: “Animals are not things - even if they are sometimes treated that way” - according to the judges at the Higher Regional Court. In the end, the case was recently decided in favor of the seller. The ruling of the BGH described in the Oldenburger Verbandsblatt (August 2020 issue) also shows that the judges are having a rethink. It seems that they have recognized that the horse is a living being and not a thing, thus also respecting the fact that the horse and other living beings do not fit into the law on the modernization of the law of obligations that has existed since 1.1.2002.
In both rulings, the Higher Regional Court followed the argumentation of the horse breeders.
Some lawyers, on the other hand, have already recognized that they are losing a well-running business model involving complaints about defects and the reversal of the burden of proof in horse sales and are trying to take massive countermeasures here.
Another interesting aspect: In January 2020, Dr. Bussmann (FDP), a member of the German Bundestag, drew our attention to the fact that the EU Directive 2019/771 allows member states to exclude live animals from the scope of the law of obligations. And he himself strongly recommended that the German government implement this. The Chairman of the Working Group on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, Dr. Jan Marco Luczak MP (CDU), writes on the petition: “Thank you very much for your letter on the petition ‘Animals are not things’ dated 7 January 2020 and for sending us Dr. Oexmann's essay on liability for material defects when buying horses. With regard to the special case of the sale of live animals and the possibility of excluding corresponding sales contracts from the scope of the Directive in accordance with Art. 3 para. 5b, the considerations you sent us on Section 90a sentence 3 BGB and the state objective of animal welfare in Article 20a of the Basic Law are very helpful. The implementation of the directive offers us as legislators the opportunity to critically examine the current legal practice of reversing the burden of proof in accordance with Section 477 of the German Civil Code when purchasing live animals,” said Dr. Luczak.
Both of the aforementioned rulings are of great importance to us horse breeders and are of great benefit to us, especially with regard to the rideability of the horses. The FN's attempt to defame the petition by referring to the imperial decree (Hanoverian June and July 2020) clearly shows the problems we have to contend with if we dare to go against the relevant opinion of the FN. I have responded to this defamation by suggesting that those who want to imply that I have any hope of ever returning to the Imperial Decree should have their intelligence quotient checked!
The FN breeding department, the legal advisor and a few others have been sleeping on the matter for a long time. The aforementioned now want to adorn themselves with Directive 2019/771 (Hanoverian July 2020), which was first mentioned in this context in January 2020 by Dr. Bussmann, Member of the Bundestag, although they had no knowledge of it for a long time. I myself finally informed them about the directive, according to which the EU allows Member States to exclude animals from property law.
It must be acknowledged that the FN, as a stakeholder, has neglected us breeders in this matter for years. I am thinking, for example, of the abolition of the breeder's premium and others. If someone then becomes active and no longer accepts the behavior of the associations, they are dismissed by these associations as “agitators”.
When the FN had to react to the matter at some point, an expert commission consisting of six professors and six horse experts was put together. Prof. Dr. Oexmann, who has already made several appearances as an experienced expert on this topic, was not included. The petition initiator Arend Kamphorst was also not invited.
