Pledge Times
An incendiary device may have been found on the driveway to the private villa of the meat entrepreneur Clemens Tönnies in Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
On Thursday night, strangers left containers with liquid and lighter there, a police spokesman in Gütersloh in East Westphalia confirmed on Saturday. A letter of confession has been received. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation, said authority spokesman Markus Schmitt on Sunday the “Westfalen-Blatt”.
According to information from the newspaper “Die Glocke”, two organizations accuse themselves of the potential arson attack: the “Revolutionary Action Cells” and a “Westphalian Animal Liberation Front”. You speak of a joint action against CEO Tönnies.
The liquid is still being examined, said the police spokesman. It cannot be ruled out that it was a politically motivated act. But there was no concrete danger because nothing was set on fire. The objects were also too far from the house. But it was already part of an incendiary device.
Tönnies is the managing director of the largest German meat company. Among other things, he is criticized for a corona mass outbreak among employees at the East Westphalian headquarters of his company. There are also allegations regarding the working conditions of the employees and the keeping of the animals for slaughter.
Around 160 animal rights activists demonstrated on Saturday in Kellinghusen in Schleswig-Holstein. On a banner they demanded: “End the Tönnies system – together against the animal industry”. The group operates a slaughterhouse in Kellinghusen that around 30 animal rights activists blocked for hours in October 2019.
The group had announced in mid-August that it was demanding 40,000 euros in damages from the group. This in turn outraged the animal rights activists and provoked new protests.