Animals
Animal shelters at the limit: where to go with dogs and cats?
Kittens are housed in a kennel in a quarantine area of the Lahr animal shelter. photo
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
Germany’s animal shelters are at the limit. Where do all the animals come from, why can many of them hardly be placed? The problematic mentality of many pet owners plays a role, as experts observe.
In Ursula Gericke’s office is Cloe, a female setter with brown and black spots on her white fur. The animal is seriously ill, probably out of grief. After nine years in her family, she was recently given up at the animal shelter in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart: her parents had separated and had moved from one house to two apartments. No more room for a dog. In the home, the bitch did not eat anymore, says head Gericke of the German Press Agency, it is a big drama. Which not only describes the situation of the four-legged friend – but also that of the shelter. Because it is now so full that animals have to be accommodated in the nurses’ room or in Gericke’s office.
In the case of cats, one is even close to stopping admission. This is already a reality in other animal shelters. For example, the animal shelter Süderstraße in Hamburg recently stopped taking in dogs and cats, not even those found on the street or confiscated by the veterinary office. In Berlin, too, the capacities are exhausted, more animals are already being cared for here than there is space, explains a spokeswoman. According to manager Michael Sperlich, the animal shelter in Leipzig is “full to the brim”. In Munich there is no formal admission freeze, but there is a waiting list, according to director Eva-Maria Natzer. In individual cases, owners who want to give up their animals have to wait weeks or months for a place.
Animals that are difficult to adopt
“Especially dogs that have educational deficits or have already been bitten gather in the animal shelters,” Natzer knows from his own experience. Dogs that are perceived as difficult and difficult to adopt – they represent one of the biggest problems, whether in Munich, Berlin or in Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg. There, animal shelter manager Julia Lambertz reports on a two-year-old herding dog mix that has bitten several times in the past: “He’ll probably be with us for the next ten or twelve years.” Animal keepers and trainers work with such dogs. According to Lambertz, however, there are hardly any people who want to take them in. “The market is saturated and the situation has been getting worse for years.”
For Eva-Maria Natzer from the Munich animal shelter, the mass of dogs that are difficult to adopt is the result of a real “animal shopping mentality” on the part of many people: “You quickly fall in love with a cute bundle of fur. But then you see in everyday life how time-consuming and expensive it is That is. For a dog you can calculate tens of thousands of euros for food, equipment, care, veterinarian and dog school over the course of its life, that’s the value of a small car.” Once the animal is there, it can quickly become overwhelming. And whether it’s because the dog can’t stay at home alone for hours without exercise or the cute puppy is going through exhausting puberty, as Natzer describes.
Sad animal fates
Just recently, a woman secretly tied a Jack Russell Terrier to the garbage cans behind the Lahr animal shelter in Baden-Württemberg – without any indication that there was a dog there, reports director Martin Spirgatis. “He sat there for around twelve hours, completely distraught.” Almost all of the dog’s teeth had to be pulled. “A really, really sad fate.”
With cases like this, the vicious circle begins, in which many animal shelters across Germany find themselves. While supposedly strenuous dogs fill their kennels, people are looking for uncomplicated four-legged friends from dubious breeders or sources abroad – which are often not the case. Which is why these dogs often end up in animal shelters. “So the number of animals is increasing more and more,” says Ursula Gericke from the animal shelter in Ludwigsburg. In addition, the aftermath of the pandemic can still be felt. Gericke received two Bengal cats from a woman with the words: “During Corona I sold everything I bred, but now I can’t get rid of them anymore.”
For more and more desperate pet owners, however, it is about money. Since a new fee schedule for veterinarians (Got) came into force in November 2022, many treatments and procedures have become more expensive. “In the Stuttgart area, you can no longer get a cat neutered for less than 200 euros; you have to reckon with 1,000 euros for a bitch. That’s crazy,” says Gericke. There are hardly any grants for people with low incomes, often the only solution is the animal shelter. For many chronically ill animals, it is the last stop.
approach
Solutions for the tense situation in the animal shelters should come from politics, not only Tanja Schnabel sees it that way. She runs the animal shelter in Nuremberg, which has almost continuously imposed a freeze on admission for donation animals for months. “There should be a dog license and more drastic penalties for importing puppies from abroad,” she says. In addition, there is a lack of financial support. Animal shelters would take on municipal tasks with the care of found and safekeeping animals, but would not be paid for by municipalities and cities to cover their costs. “We always have to beg because it is calculated that we as animal rights activists will not say no.”
Soon Schnabel wants to join the Alliance Schattenhund, an association of animal rights activists, animal shelter managers and animal trainers. According to the homepage, they finally want to improve the situation of all the “difficult dogs” who “become long-term inmates in the animal shelters”. Schnabel is certain that if nothing is done, more and more animal shelters could reach their limits. With potentially drastic consequences: “We are aiming for conditions like those in some southern countries, where packs of dogs roam the cities.”