An unusual wave of donations is affecting animal shelters: Many people are giving back pets that they bought during the Corona period. The facilities are reaching their limits.
Stuttgart / Schorndorf – The German Animal Welfare Association warned in June of a wave of domestic animals that were bought in the Corona crisis. Now the concern seems to be coming true. Some animal shelters in the region around the state capital Stuttgart * report an unusually high number of taxes. Small animals such as rabbits, hamsters and birds in particular are brought into the facilities by the animal owners.
Many animal shelters like the one in Schorndorf (Rems-Murr-Kreis *) are currently receiving requests for a return. “With small animals like rabbits and birds we are slowly reaching our capacity limits,” says Steffen Töllner, head of the facility in Schorndorf, to the Stuttgarter Zeitung .
The wave of sales is stronger than is usual in summer
The inquiries are currently not decreasing and are significantly more than in the usual wave of sales in summer. In Ludwigsburg, too, the limits have now been reached, says the director of the local animal shelter, Ursula Gericke. As in Schorndorf, small animals are particularly affected.
The institutions attribute this to careless and careless purchases during the Corona crisis. There was a boom in pets during the pandemic. According to data from the Pet Supplies Industry Association, the number of animal roommates in households rose by a total of around one million between 2019 and 2020. Last year, 66 percent of all families with children had a pet, which corresponds to an increase of five percent compared to the previous year. Above all, the number of cats and dogs in households rose, in cats from 14.7 to 15.7 million and in dogs from 10.1 to 10.7 million.
However, there is also a negative trend in the animal shelter in Schorndorf among the four-legged friends. Puppies are now being given up there too, mostly in poor condition. “Before buying, many do not think about what goes with keeping a dog. And then they are overwhelmed, ”says Steffen Töllner. For this reason, too, owners will have to complete a test in the future, the “dog handler license” * (BW24 * reported).
The pet owners often come up with flimsy excuses when they are returned
The director of the animal shelter says that one can only speculate about the specific reasons why the animals would be returned. He assumes that many animals have been purchased for children who had to stay at home during school and daycare closings. Often the manager is then given similar-sounding excuses when they are returned. “Most of the time we are not told the truth. There are excuses, such as allergies, ”says Töllner. Dogs are also returned, sometimes for trivial reasons: A dog puppy was given to an animal shelter * because it did not look like it was hoped for.
It looks different in Stuttgart. In the animal shelter there, there is no massive return of pets: “Animals that we brokered in the corona pandemic do not come back,” says Marion Wünn, the director of the animal shelter at the request of BW24 . However, the facility has also prepared for this: “We made sure in advance that an animal from our animal shelter can continue to be cared for in the new home even after the lockdown. The inquiries were very high, but not every interested party received an animal from us for this very reason, ”said Wünn. However, it is unclear how the situation will develop. * BW24 is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
