The new multifunctional building of the Dachau animal shelter is slowly taking shape.
Sylvia Gruber, chairwoman of the Dachau Animal Welfare Association, reports that the past few months have not been easy: "I was on the verge of resilience!"
BY SIMONE WESTER
Dachau - In the meantime, in addition to the floor slab, the outer walls have almost completely been raised and the successor trades have been terminated. Sylvia Gruber, chairwoman of the Dachau Animal Welfare Association, fought for a long time to build the new multifunctional house of the animal shelter, and continues to do so today, because the Corona situation did not exactly accelerate the construction project. On the contrary: there were delivery problems, price explosions, and fears about subsidies. Gruber, who can't be brought down so quickly, admits: “I was on the verge of resilience. That costs nerves without end, I didn't want to anymore! "
To understand the current situation, however, one has to go back to 1993. At that time the animal shelter was closed with 800,000 DM in the Miesen and due to bankruptcy, the board of directors to resign. Sylvia Gruber was persuaded to take over the office of chairman "provisionally", as she remembers. "At that time there were no grants from the municipalities for the old building, we weren't treated on an equal footing with the sports clubs." Today she is still at the head of the Dachau Animal Welfare Association, and no one is trying to win her position. "So far we've been bankrupt three or four times."
The construction costs for the new multifunctional building were according to the first estimate in 2019 at 950,000 euros. Now it's already 1.25 million euros. “And, according to the architects, we will probably need more,” Gruber fears. The cost of construction timber alone has doubled as a result of Corona, she explains. In addition, there were 50,000 additional costs for the disposal of contaminated sites.
But it is not just costs that keep the chairwoman on her toes. The funding also follows its own rules of the game, which are not always immediately transparent. "Until 2018, the Free State of Bavaria had not planned any funds for animal welfare in the household," said Gruber. In September 2018, only 1 million euros were made available for all Bavarian animal shelters. But where you can apply for it in 2019 - nobody knew that at the time. As is well known, Dachau is located in the administrative district of Upper Bavaria, but the Dachau animal rights activists had to apply to the government of Upper Franconia for funding for the new animal shelter. In December 2019, the approval notification in the amount of 93,000 euros followed. “That closed our funding gap at the time,” recalls Gruber.
However, the approval was accompanied by new regulations - including the requirement that the work must be publicly advertised in accordance with applicable guidelines. "For that we suddenly needed a planner for one area," groans Gruber about the additional costs and extra working hours that this entails. When the time passed, she submitted an application to transfer the funding to 2021. The authorities refused. In order not to completely lose the funding, the excavation and the floor slab took place in winter 2020.
There were further delays due to a corona case in the construction company. But Gruber hopes everything should be ready in 2022. In addition to the current construction costs - which are also so high because all rooms are tiled wall-high and the joints have to be sealed with epoxy resin, because the rooms have to be constantly cleaned with high-pressure cleaners and strong disinfectants - she is also worried about the running costs. The clinic costs alone amount to 10,000 euros per month. In addition, there are 2,000 to 4,000 euros in veterinary costs. There is no subsidy from the city or local authorities for wild animals such as hedgehogs. Here, too, you can easily collect 1000 to 2000 euros per month.
Another thing that burdens the association's finances: the current decline in membership. Few people want to pay the annual membership fee of 30 euros. Often there is no justification, but sometimes the corona pandemic and the associated job loss are given, which Gruber can of course understand. Nevertheless, in addition to donations to feed the animals, she also hopes for donations of food. There are currently many dogs and cats that need special food due to allergies. In addition, the shelter is currently urgently looking for drivers for transport trips. Further information is available at 0 81 31/56 31 0.