[Legal view of treating ownerless, confiscated and lost animals].
Year after year over 300,000 animals are being brought into the more than 500 German animal shelters. The majority of these (70%) are lost or confiscated animals which will be kept there for a short time. The animal shelter takes care of animals which are not their own property. Legally, the communities are responsible for the accommodation of lost and confiscated animals. For lack of sufficient public animal shelters, the communities regularly assign private animal shelters with the accommodation of these animals. In this matter, problems arise when it comes to realising the reimbursement of expenditures because specific regulations concerning the duration of such duties and the amount of refunding do not exist. Even the differentiation between lost animals and ownerless animals does not go undisputed. Recently many communities have begun refusing the payment of costs for accommodating cats because they are of the opinion that these animals were neither lost nor are in a state of emergency. As regards feral or ownerless animals, communities are responsible for these in order to maintain public security if such animals endanger individual persons or the public at large. The accommodation of confiscated animals, especially dogs which are dangerous, is very demanding on private animal shelters in terms of personal and financial resources. Often the owner of the confiscated animal cannot pay the reimbursement of costs or the animal shelter has no chance to rehome the animal, because it is sick, old or dangerous. Saving costs by killing such animals is forbidden by ethical and legal provisions.
Ofensberger
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Akademie für Tierschutz, Neubiberg. Evelyn.Ofensberger@tierschutzakademie.de
D000827:Animal Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005858:Germany; D006799:Housing, Animal / Q000191:economics*