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Dispute about found animal flat rate: fronts between animal welfare and district municipalities hardened

2022-12-27T17:19:58.513Z


The fronts have hardened between the animal protection association and the district municipalities. While the association sees animal protection as a task for the municipalities and the city, the municipalities want to focus on caring for the found animals.


The fronts have hardened between the animal protection association and the district municipalities.

While the association sees animal protection as a task for the municipalities and the city, the municipalities want to focus on caring for the found animals.

District – As soon as an abandoned animal is found in the 13 district municipalities or in the city of Starnberg, it comes to the animal shelter on Franziskusweg in Starnberg, where the employees take care of the dogs, cats or guinea pigs.

This rule applied for years.

However, the contracts for the flat-rate fee for found animals will expire at the end of the year.

And negotiations for a new agreement have turned out to be not without problems.

Hardened fronts prevail between the animal protection association that runs the animal shelter and the municipalities.

The association sees animal welfare as a task for the municipalities, while they see animal welfare as an obligation for society as a whole.

For the communities, the focus is on caring for the found animals through the animal shelter.

It's about the money.

The animal protection association would like to receive 3.50 euros per inhabitant and year from the municipalities in the future.

The municipalities, the city of Starnberg and the district offer the association 1.90 euros for the care of the lost animals.

So far, the amount was contractually 60 cents.

In the middle of the year it was increased to one euro by a one-off payment from the municipalities.

Now the animal protection association wants more than three times as much.

Animal shelter with a deficit in the six-digit range

"The costs of the animal shelter will increase significantly in 2023," says club boss Rainer Henkelmann.

The reasons for this are the increased prices for feed and energy as well as the new fee regulation for veterinarians (we reported).

The animal shelter takes care of around 100 dogs, 200 cats and a number of small and wild animals every year.

“The animal shelter has been financed from the association’s assets for years.

We always have a deficit in the six-digit range,” says Henkelmann.

This can be compensated by inheritance.

"But the money is finite." The income that the association makes through earmarked donations, animal sponsorships, mediation or vacation replacements is not enough at all.

And only because of the found animal flat rate "can the animal shelter not survive".

The chairman expects a total cost of one million euros for the animal shelter in 2023.

These include, among other things, the wages of the 19 employees, the costs for the property, for energy, feed and the veterinarian.

Henkelmann estimates that about a quarter of the costs are due to the found animals.

The club does not have concrete numbers.

The fact that the municipalities in the district want to take on the approximately 250,000 euros is not enough for the chairman.

"The entire animal protection is the task of the municipalities," he says and demands that they also pay half of the costs for the year 2023 - i.e. around 500,000 euros.

"I understand that the municipalities and the city currently have little money, but the situation of the animal shelter is difficult.

It cannot be that it will be ruined.”

The association and municipalities hope for a solution

According to Rainer Schnitzler, mayor of Pöcking and spokesman for the district mayors, there is little understanding for the municipalities on the part of the association.

"It's not fair to say that we didn't try to make everything possible," he says.

"We are willing to pay more than two and a half times the previous amount." The budget will be cut in all areas, but the opposite is the case with the animal welfare association.

For months there have been talks between municipalities, district and association about new contracts for the found animal flat rate.

"First there was talk of 1.20 euros, then 1.50 euros and then 1.60 euros per inhabitant," says Schnitzler.

In his opinion, the club didn't handle the situation very cleverly.

"The way you call into the forest, so it resounds," says Schnitzler.

"The way the association behaved, it won't be any easier to convince the mayors in the future." Among other things, an advertisement by the association caused resentment, in which the association accused the municipalities of refusing further financial support.

Schnitzler advises the animal protection association to change something themselves in the future so that the deficit is reduced.

"It's hard to get an animal from a shelter, I've found that since I've been researching the subject.

Maybe you're being a little too strict in the relationship," he notes.

The mayors also want concrete numbers on found animals next year.

"There is currently nothing about that."

The district pays 30 cents of the found animal flat rate as a voluntary service

In addition to the municipalities, the district takes over part of the flat rate for found animals - specifically, it is 30 cents of the 1.90 euros as a voluntary service.

"It annoys me that the animal protection association writes that the district and the municipalities do not support it.

Cuts are being made everywhere - not here," says District Administrator Stefan Frey.

"It cannot be that the financing of the animal shelter is the sole responsibility of the municipalities and the district - as the association would like."

In a few days the contract for the found animal flat rate expires.

Schnitzler sent the club a new draft contract.

There is no answer yet.

"We intended to accept the offer," says Henkelmann in an interview with Starnberger Merkur.

Until the time has come and the municipal councils and the city council have approved the final version, each found animal must be accounted for individually.

"An enormous amount of extra work - for both sides," says the chairman.

That's why both Henkelmann and Schnitzler want a quick solution.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-12-27

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