On the occasion of yesterday's decision for a state-wide cat protection ordinance in Lower Saxony, the German Animal Welfare Association is calling for corresponding regulations at federal level.
"Mandating the neutering, identification and registration of outdoor cats is the right way forward," says Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Association. "Neutering is the only way to prevent uncontrolled reproduction, thereby reducing the suffering of free-roaming street cats and relieving the burden on animal shelters. Identification and registration make it possible to find the owner quickly if a runaway cat is found or an animal has been cold-heartedly abandoned." With a view to the whole of Germany, Schröder is therefore calling for a nationwide regulation for more cat protection. This should require cat owners to have both male and female cats with uncontrolled outdoor access neutered. Identification with a transponder and microchip and subsequent registration in a pet register such as FINDEFIX should also become mandatory.
LOWER SAXONY SETS A GOOD EXAMPLE
Alongside Berlin, Lower Saxony is only the second federal state to introduce an effective cat protection ordinance at state level. Otherwise, it is individual municipalities that take action at the regulatory level or on the basis of ordinances issued by the federal states in accordance with Section 13b of the Animal Welfare Act: There are now more than 1,000 such cities and municipalities with castration, identification and registration obligations for outdoor cats - out of a total of more than 10,000 municipalities in Germany. Although these municipalities are setting a good example, the German Animal Welfare Association believes that it remains a patchwork quilt. "What we need is nationwide cat protection: nationwide," says Schröder.
In its coalition agreement, the coalition government has only promised that the identification and registration of dogs will become mandatory. The German Animal Welfare Association is making it clear in its current campaign "Now more animal protection!" that such an obligation must also apply to cats - combined with mandatory castration for outdoor cats. With the campaign, the association is providing information on which announcements from the coalition agreement have already been tackled by the coalition with the traffic light system and where there have only been empty promises so far (www.jetzt-mehr-tierschutz.de).
