Overview
- Prosecutors in Ansbach sought penalty orders for seven Buckl employees carrying fines of 30 to 180 day rates, with one exceeding 90 day rates and counting as a criminal record.
- The local court has already issued four of the seven orders, and one has become legally final, authorities said.
- Investigations into company management are ongoing and depend on a pending expert assessment of the slaughter equipment to determine potential criminal culpability.
- Regulators halted slaughter at the plant immediately in April 2025 after undercover footage by Aninova documented severe abuse, with some worker cases later reclassified as administrative offenses handled by the KBLV.
- The Wassertrüdingen facility is being liquidated, with machinery and vehicles sold and most of roughly 125 staff laid off, pushing slaughter to smaller domestic sites and to plants in Eastern Europe and Austria.