• croatiantimes.com
• romaniantimes.at
• salzburgtimes.at
• viennatimes.at
• austrianindependent.com

Today

• Vienna - Pub Quiz at Charlie Ps
• Vienna - Unknown Underground
• Vienna- January and February at the Austrian Film Museum
• Vienna - Art by Petronilla Hohenwarter.
• STOMP at the MuseumsQuartier

19. 01. 10. - 16:00

• more General News news
• RSS Feed General News

19. 01. 10. - 16:00

Saved avalanche pigs get chop

By David Rogers

Pigs saved from the chop after public protests stopped them being buried alive in snow by scientists are to end up as sausages, say researchers conducting the tests.

Animal rights campaigners have demanded that the Austrian scientists hand over the 19 pigs so they can be re-housed at a refuge.

Plans to bury them alive in snow and monitor their agonising deaths for avalanche survival research were scrapped at the weekend after an animal rights storm.

But now scientists conducting the tests in Sölden, Tyrol, say the pardoned animals are back on death row and will be packed off to the slaughterhouse this week.

Experiment director Peter Paal said today (Tues): "The animal rights activists will not get the pigs. That's for sure. I will not allow the pigs any charity.

"The animals were always destined to be slaughtered for the food industry and they will be taken to be slaughtered in the coming days," he added

But furious animal lovers say they will continue the fight for the pigs.

Johanna Stadler, director of the animal rights organisation "Vier Pfoten" (Four Paws)  said: "We could provide for all the pigs, everything could be prepared."

Researchers in the Tyrolean Alps had originally wanted to study the effects of being caught in an avalanche and chose pigs because of their biological similarity to humans.

Some were completely submerged and others buried up to their necks, and the time they took to die was recorded.

But the teams from the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine in Italy and the Medical University of Innsbruck stopped the tests after killing ten of 29 pigs following public outrage.

Austrian Times

Vienna ÖVP endorses proposed district cuts
Vienna People’s Party (ÖVP) Josefstadt district head Veronika Mickel suggested continuing to speak about a reduction of positions in the city's administration.

Skiing starts in Vienna
Over this winter holiday week, Vienna’s residents will once again be able to make a trip to the slopes without venturing out of the city. The capital’s very own ski slope, "High Hills", will be open daily to the public from 4 February until 11 February.

Vranitzky appreciates tuition fees discussion
Former Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Franz Vranitzky has said he welcomes the current debate about a reintroduction of tuition fees.

Wiener Linien records rising demand for annual passes
The number of people opting for annual Wiener Linien tickets is soaring.

Many Austrians mistrust jurisdiction
Almost four in 10 Austrians had a worse opinion of the country’s juridical system today than a few years ago, a new survey shows.

Ice wine harvest later than ever
The grapes for ice wine production have been harvested later than ever this year in Austria. The fruit for the popular dessert wine are normally picked in December at the latest but only now have the temperatures been cold enough for the harvest.

Westbahn welcomes 6,000 a day
Westbahn manages to sell one in two of the overall number of tickets it offers, a spokesman said today (Fri).

Vice chancellor refuses to exclude FPÖ
The People’s Party (ÖVP) keeps refusing to disassociate itself from the Freedom Party (FPÖ) following FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache’s controversial comparisons with the Nazi era.

Austrian and German terrorists hid plans in their underpants
Two alleged terrorists including one Austrian hid plans in their underpants to hack off heads, burn bodies and then send the videos back to their al-Qaeda bosses in Afghanistan, a German court has heard.

Vitamin D linked to fertility
Austrian scientists have found a link between a lack of vitamin D and fertility. Graz-based endocrinologist Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch and her colleague Elisabeth Lerchbaum compared data from several vitamin D studies and say there is a clear link between vitamin D and the production of testosterone and sperm quality.