After several reports about abuses at the children’s farm in the Wilhelminapark in Best, the municipality intervenes. According to local residents, the animals are poorly cared for and there is illegal breeding. Pigeons would also be beheaded. The municipality has now given the children’s farm a warning and will see if more measures are needed.
According to the municipality, 33 reports have been received about the children’s farm since 2019. They are about ‘the animals, the design of the location and about the park’, the municipality does not want to say more about it.
Studio040 Speaked with local residents who are very concerned about animal welfare at the children’s farm. On images that made local residents, you can see how rabbits stay in small cages, how a walibi is dead on the grass and how a goat is harshly punished for ‘wrong’ behavior. The residents have also noticed a lively animal trade around the park.
The municipality owns the children’s farm. In a fire letter, the organizations demanded animal -friendly children’s farms Committee for Animal Nood Aid and Animal -friendly Netherlands rather that the manager and employees of the children’s farm had to be put out of their position.
According to the alderman, there was no incorrect acting by the manager, but she will return to that this week during a council meeting. “We have mapped the situation and came to the conclusion that we really have to do something about it,” said Alderman Rik Dijkhoff. “The children’s farm has not grown with the time. In the field of housing of the animals, but also not in the field of animal welfare, animal choice, education and management. It is high time that we change that.”
“We have to be honest,” says Dijkhoff. “If we don’t think it is worth the money or the effort, then we will close the children’s farm.”
The manager previously told Studio040 that he will be desperate from the complaints of local residents. According to him, the worries are not needed for anything. He also blames local residents for throwing food scraps over the fence, which he says the animals suffer.
The municipality and the manager have not yet responded to further questions from Omroep Brabant.