!!!Tierschutz

Protection of animals: Under Austrian law animals are seen as property 
and the infliction of damage and the killing of an animal without the 
consent of the owner is damage to property. However, several 
provincial laws pay due regard to animals as living beings and forbid 
cruelty to animals, exploitation and maltreatment and threaten 
offenders with administrative penal proceedings; humane slaughtering 
is legally provided for. In 1992 Austria signed the European 
Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes, 
which aims at introducing minimum standards for keeping farm animals 
(especially in confinement-type husbandry) and which makes binding 
provisions for the proper treatment and keeping of all animals 
(species-appropriate animal husbandry). Implementation is within the 
remit of the individual provinces.

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Hunting and fishing fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces, 
which not only determine the amount of fish and game to be caught and 
hunted but also the methods of fishing and hunting and also the 
duration of the close season. Regulations concerning hunting and 
poaching, which contained certain provisions for the protection of 
animals, were first issued in the 18%%sup th/%  and 19%%sup th/%  
centuries. The first law on the protection of birds was passed in 
Styria in 1868 (a similar law had been passed in Galicia as early as 
1854), other Austrian provinces followed later (Lower Austria in 
1889). The legal protection of individual species began after 1918 and 
has been embodied in the various laws on nature conservation. 
Protected animals in Austria are: all bats indigenous to Austria and 
most birds of prey, amphibians and reptiles.


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