Hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs end up in German animal shelters every year. Our author wanted to adopt two cats – but quickly gave up the "Animal Welfare Project".
Big hopeful dog eyes and cats purring around your legs: Those who go to an animal shelter often do so in the hope of finding a new animal companion. Especially now during Corona, when many people are at home for a long time for the first time and can hardly get out, many are realizing that they lack animal company.
I have to admit: I felt the same way. As a single in the classic two-room apartment (with exactly 58.5 square meters – that will be important again!) I was quite lonely during the curfew light of the last few months. In fact, I wanted to take in two cats when I moved into this apartment almost three years ago because I grew up with cats. But: My landlord was cross at the time. And if you live comparatively cheaply in a beautiful apartment in the middle of Hamburg, you won't argue with your landlord.
Where do you get animals here?
Since several animals now live in the house, I started a second attempt. And this time got permission for two cats. What I didn't know then: It would be a pretty rocky road until I could actually call two cute chicks my own.
At first I looked hopefully through animal shelter pages – but quickly came across the first problem. The animal shelter in Hamburg wrote on its site, for example, that most cats are outdoors and cannot be placed in an apartment. Basically completely correct, because locking an outdoor animal in an apartment can lead to a lot of problems and should simply not be done to an animal. But the whole thing is a dilemma: Of course, it's nice when the cats in the shelter are allowed to go outside. But with that, unfortunately, all these animals are usually already eliminated for a mediation for the classic city dweller.
Critical Limits
That affected me too – a good 90 percent of the cats available were outdoors. And that wasn't the only problem. Most animal shelters offer a questionnaire for self-assessment directly on their website, in which you enter, for example, how big the apartment is and whether and how much you work. I found most of the questions logical and understandable, but I also stumbled upon one or the other questionable point. For example, many animal shelters specify a minimum apartment size of 60 square meters for two cats. And yes – my 58.5 square meters were rejected several times as too little. While at the same time many animal shelters are on the verge of the limit and do not know how to properly care for all animals. Uh, please?
Got into the net
The lists contained some other more or less funny questions. For example, balcony security was critically examined. I wasn't sure whether I could completely secure my balcony with the classic cat net. But my uncle is technically gifted and offered to build a ceiling wetting himself that you could move in and out as needed. That was also rejected – no classic cat net, no cat.
Do you have windows?
At the time, I was fed up with this clichéd German bureaucracy and was looking at international animal welfare websites. In Spain, in particular, there are many rescue centers with animals in precarious locations. For example, there were two cats that were only poorly looked after on a farm in southern Spain and were supposed to be placed together. When I asked for them, I got the longest questionnaire ever, which this time was hard to beat in terms of curiosity. Among other things, the following questions were raised:
- Do you have windows?
- Can these windows be opened?
- How do you plan to prevent the cat from getting stuck in a tilted window?
While I was still laughing at the first questions (who lives in an apartment without a window, please?), The last one made me frown. I was aware that tilted windows can actually be death traps for cats. The suggestion to generally only open windows when you are present or to lock the cat out of the room to ventilate, however, was not enough: It would be better if each individual window were provided with a cat net. And all that while the two kitties in Spain barely get enough to eat. Uh, please?
Needless to say, I didn't get the cats. Not these two, nor the eight others I asked various international organizations about. Unfortunately, I don't live in a windowless bunker in the forest that is several kilometers away from the next road.
Of course, it is good and right that there are generally strict requirements for the adoption of animals both in Germany and in other countries. For example, home workers' home visits are often already mandatory in this country. But unfortunately the requirements go completely past the reality of life for the average wage earner.
And: In various Internet forums, many users report that they initially felt they were under general suspicion when visiting an animal shelter. The employees are often skeptical and unfriendly, as if they assumed that everyone wants something bad for the animals first. And someone wonders about overcrowded animal shelters?
Classified Ads – Blessings and Blessings
After six weeks of fruitless searching, I gave up trying to take cats out of animal welfare. I finally found what I was looking for through a classified ad and took in two lovely and well socialized cat siblings from a farm near Hamburg. But: Here, too, you have to keep your eyes open, because business with dubious pet trade is flourishing via classified ads on the Internet. If you go looking here, you should take a very close look at the advertisement and, for example, make sure that the animals are vaccinated and chipped, that they are not handed in when they are less than ten weeks old and that the mother can be viewed. Many dubious dealers already reject this. As long as the overly strict requirements in animal shelters remain, the lousy trade in classified ads can unfortunately hardly be contained properly.