On 12 January, Wiesenhof announced it is pressing criminal charges at the responsible prosecution in Verden against the former independent operating company of the parental farm in Twistringen.

Material shown on 11 January on the 'report Mainz' programme originates from this farm. The contractual relationship with the mentioned leaseholder of the farm ended in November 2009. Nevertheless, Wiesenhof will press criminal charges against the leaseholder due to the negligence of contractual obligatory supervision and acceptance of the breach of the animal welfare regulations. Those breaches had been accepted and even recorded.

Independently of this matter, Wiesenhof had taken the first steps in matters of personnel penalty and organisational changes on 8 January after examining the material with 'report Mainz', which had been recorded at the parent farm. These steps had been taken due to the fact that the documented treatment is not in accordance with the corporate policy in regard to animal welfare examined and totally unacceptable.

One consequence of the actions taken of this singular case, Wiesenhof has ceased working with the companies in charge of loading of the livestock with immediate effect. Additional to the already existing own monitoring of the parental farms and audits of certifying companies unannounced controls will be done by the company's animal welfare officer.

Wiesenhof has reasonable suspicion that the farm manager were exploited by PETA. The fact that this malpractice had been tolerated or even encouraged substantiates this suspicion. Therefore, Wiesenhof will press criminal charges against PETA.

Wiesenhof regrets that those breaches of the operating company of the parent farm had not been notified to the authorities or the company.