The German Animal Welfare Federation and its Brandenburg State Animal Welfare Federation welcome today's decision by the state of Brandenburg for more cat protection. By enacting an ordinance in accordance with Section 13b of the Animal Welfare Act, the districts and independent cities will be given the opportunity to issue cat protection ordinances for certain areas so that cats living outside must be neutered, identified and registered in a pet register such as FINDEFIX. One of the aims of neutering is to put a stop to the uncontrolled proliferation of free-roaming street cats.
"We have long fought for Brandenburg to make use of the opportunity offered by Section 13b of the Animal Welfare Act," comments Rico Lange, Chairman of the Brandenburg State Animal Welfare Federation. "It is very pleasing that the municipalities can now issue ordinances on cat protection. This would clearly be necessary throughout Brandenburg. After all, cats don't necessarily stop at local borders. We therefore appeal to all local authorities to seize this opportunity." Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation, also emphasizes the importance of nationwide neutering: "The suffering of street cats, which cannot be brought under control with uncontrolled reproduction, as well as overcrowded animal shelters due to unwanted cat offspring are not local animal welfare problems, but nationwide. We are therefore calling for a nationwide castration obligation."
Paragraph 13b of the Animal Welfare Act authorizes the federal states to issue cat protection ordinances - or to transfer this option to the municipalities in the state. At state level, only Berlin has an effective ordinance on cat protection to date. It was also recently passed for Lower Saxony. Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have transferred the authority to issue cat protection ordinances to the municipalities - just as Brandenburg has now done.
A nationwide regulation on cat protection, as the German Animal Welfare Federation is calling for from the federal government as part of its current cat protection campaign "Every cat's life counts", would be the most effective way to end cat suffering in Germany and relieve the burden on animal shelters. In its current "Cat Protection Report", the German Animal Welfare Federation highlights the fact that the suffering of millions of street cats, all of which are descended from unneutered outdoor cats, has become one of the biggest unnoticed animal welfare problems in Germany.
Note to editors: The German Animal Welfare Federation's "Big Cat Protection Report" is available to download free of charge at the following link: www.jetzt-katzen-helfen.de/report
