Every year, experts advise against buying animals as Christmas gifts. However, the holidays can also be a good time to prepare for life as a pet owner. It is a challenge for animal shelters to differentiate.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Dolls are under the Christmas tree, computer games or even a toy train. But living animals? In order to prevent puppies and small kittens with bows from being given away at the festival and new owners quickly changing their minds, animal shelters are appealing again this year not to give away four-legged friends at Christmas. A number of institutions in Baden-Württemberg are therefore not placing any of their protégés before Christmas this year either.
This is how the animal shelter in Karlsruhe does it. “We don’t adopt any animals at all before Christmas because we don’t want any animal to end up under the Christmas tree,” says Stephan Winterhoff, chairman of the Tierschutzhof. Cats, dogs and also rabbits stayed in the home throughout December. “We have animals with behavioral problems here with us and we don’t have any pressure to place them,” says the animal rights activist. But there are always inquiries, so you have to be careful. “There are also contemporaries who act more skilfully after a few rebuffs.”
Animals as Christmas presents is a very sensitive topic for Winterhoff: “We collect our society’s affluent waste here,” he criticizes. “And especially around Christmas, people get an animal they don’t understand and then realize that it costs a lot of money and they can’t handle it.”
Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Agriculture, Peter Hauk, knows that Winterhoff is on his side. “It’s good that many animal shelters are stopping placement before Christmas,” says the CDU politician. “A pet is not a short-term Christmas guest or just visiting for the holidays.” Rather, it is a long-term obligation and a great responsibility. “An animal should never be bought spontaneously, even in the interest of animal welfare.” Hauk recommends intensive advice or reading: “A relevant specialist book from the bookstore around the corner is a more sensible Christmas present,” he says.
Also in the Böblingen animal shelter, no more animals will be placed until the New Year. Exceptions are only made for rabbits, says an employee. “In the event of an animal’s death, a quick replacement is required, because rabbits need company.” It is not always difficult to find out whether inquiries are meant seriously: “Sometimes people say on the phone that they want to give away an animal. Then we briefly decline and refer to January.”
The animal shelter in Ulm is taking a shorter break. No animal will be placed between Christmas Eve and New Year. “And otherwise we have enough experience, we ask certain questions in the conversation and then we find out how serious someone is about their desire for an animal,” it says there.
In some cases, Jutta Schweidler from the animal shelter in Weinheim (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis) can already say when the interested party arrives whether the animal can become a permanent partner or just a gift. “If a whole family comes, then that’s good, of course,” she says. “And if someone comes alone and wants a puppy, that’s pretty obvious.” The team at the animal shelter is also very careful in the run-up to Christmas. “We don’t give very clear Christmas presents,” says Schweidler.
Nevertheless, one or the other manages to fulfill the offspring’s urgent wish shortly before Christmas: “At Christmas children are asked what they want and then they give in,” says Martina Klausmann from the Baden-Württemberg State Animal Protection Association. “But when the once small dog gets bigger or pushy because no one is bothering with him, so if he rebels or you realize that it’s going to be expensive, then the Christmas present becomes a problem.”
The result: The animal shelters, which can hardly save themselves from inquiries because of the consequences of the corona pandemic, now have to take in even more unwanted pets. Above all, the search for accommodation places for “difficult” dogs is becoming increasingly difficult, says the head of the association, Stefan Hitzler. He expects the problems to get bigger after the Christmas euphoria. “Many animal shelters can no longer cope with the countless inquiries and have already reached the limits of their capacity,” he warns. “In addition, numerous animal shelters in the country are currently having to fight for their own existence.” The animals are the ones who suffer the most.
