SRF presenter Sabine Dahinden (52) is live this week for the “Schweiz aktuell” theme week “The pet business” (Mon. to Fri., 7 p.m., SRF 1). “During the pandemic and the subsequent pet boom, the topic almost became an issue for me,” says Dahinden. Especially since she knows about pets from an early age.
«As a child we had an Appenzell mountain dog. Cora was the same age as me, she died at eight, that was the end of the world for me. Then later came the cats. If you have pets, you always have to reckon with drama, there are sad moments with every death. Today we have two farm cats from Entlebuch that my husband got from a patient. ” Dahinden’s husband is cardiac surgeon Thierry Carrel (61).
The bond with these animals is great. “When I’m out and about, I miss her very much.” However, it is also clear who is dancing to whose tune. “Tartuffe rules me, not I him, that is very clear.” For a viewer call, she wanted to record a video with the twelve-year-old cat and perform a trick. “Tartuffe was supposed to do the little man and touch my forehead, but I never had the slightest chance,” she says with a laugh. “For me, animals are real family members with a wide variety of peculiarities.”
“Even spiders have it good with me”
Dahinden has no phobias, “even spiders are fine with me”. It would only be bad for them if individual animals took over. “We once had an invasion of pigeons in the screed. The birds came in through a hole and multiplied, almost like Hitchcock’s. Or one day, in a room that we hardly needed, the whole carpet was covered in moths. At that moment my love for animals was suddenly over. “
The domestic animal boom can be explained by the increased feeling of loneliness. «I understand all lonely people who want an animal. The problem is basically not the purchase, but the attitude and the binding assumption of responsibility. “But there are also maxims when it comes to purchasing. “I want to know where an animal comes from and who raised it and how. How much love does an animal need, and where are the limits? ” Dahinden and her team are also investigating such questions this week.