Last updated: 15.01.2024, 09:21 a.m.
By: Armin T. Linder
CommentsPrint Share
Perhaps Cuxhaven's best-known celebrity moved here a few years ago and raves about the idyll. But this has now been spoiled for him: he is at the city.
Cuxhaven - Probably the most famous celebrity in Cuxhaven is a newcomer. Although "Tagesschau" spokesman Constantin Schreiber also comes from Cuxhaven, he lives in Hamburg, according to the Abendblatt. In this respect, Jochen Bendel (56) is likely to be the biggest star who lives in the city of 50,000 inhabitants on the North Sea coast.
TV presenter Jochen Bendel lives with her husband in Cuxhaven
The presenter, known from "Ruck Zuck", "Big Brother", "Pet Seeks Heart", as a jungle camp participant and from Radio Arabella, moved from Munich to an old captain's house in the Döse district in April 2020, together with his husband, the social pedagogue Matthias Pridöhl (37). The two had met in 2013 through the purchase of a leather jacket on the Kleiderkreisel platform.
"I like the sea better than the mountains," Bendel once told the Nordsee-Zeitung. "The move was the best decision of my life." He hasn't regretted swapping Munich for Cuxhaven: "And you really have to say: It's a paradise."
Jochen Bendel vents anger over dog tax assessment
At the moment, however, the dog lover is very bad to speak of Cuxhaven. And vented his anger in an Instagram video. "What can we do to make the city of Cuxhaven reconsider the increase in the dog tax of up to 960 euros?" he asks. You can see Bendel's anger when he speaks into the camera.
"You know, we are both dog trainers, we live in Cuxhaven with our two dogs. Like many other Cuxhaven residents, we got our dog tax notice. I have to say quite honestly: This is unsurpassed in cheek and audacity on the part of the city of Cuxhaven." Pridöhl explains: "They simply drew up a list of four dogs, where they said: These people have to pay ten times as much dog tax for the dogs. 960 euros."
My news
Photos of the current farmers' protests – strikes, blockades and traffic jams
'Unannounced checks': employers must delete vaccination dataread
"We don't need him here": Woman irritates reporters during Scholz's visit to Verdenlesen
Climate glue in need: Suddenly a piece of road hangs on the palm of the hand
Police expressed serious suspicions: Missing Felix (10) found - First details publishedread
Residents' parking to become more expensive in several citiesread more
Bendel continues: "Just in our circle of friends, circle of acquaintances, that drives so many people ..." Pridöhl completes the sentence: "... their subsistence level. You need to consider giving up the dog. They don't know what to do." Bendel: "This is a slap in the face for every dog owner. Lower Saxony has the most modern dog law, the most modern dog ordinance in Germany. There is no breed list. Dogs per se are not considered dangerous just because they belong to a certain breed. Today it's our dogs, tomorrow it's your dogs. And we can't put up with that under any circumstances." Bendel has started a petition with change.org, which (as of 9.1., 11.30 a.m.) has already been digitally signed by almost 7,900 people.
Dog of Jochen Bendel and Matthias Pridöhl is a "list dog" classified as dangerous
The couple shows an excerpt of the dog tax assessment. According to this, a "normal" dog costs 96 euros a year – "for every dangerous dog", on the other hand, 960 euros are due. Their American Staffordshire Terrier Snoopy, which they had taken from the Cuxhaven animal shelter according to the Nordsee-Zeitung, was classified as such a dangerous dog. According to Nord24.de, Bull Terriers, Pitbull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers are listed as dangerous dogs in the new version of the dog tax statute in Cuxhaven.
"Breed lists" with corresponding requirements for dog owners exist in many federal states, as landtiere.de reports. Lower Saxony is not one of them, it is up to the localities themselves to introduce one. Taxation then varies greatly. This can be seen in the example of North Rhine-Westphalia: For the federal state, for example, the Association of Taxpayers of North Rhine-Westphalia e.V. found a range of 2023 to 120 euros (in Solingen and Heimbach) in the1200 dog tax comparison as far as dogs classified as dangerous are concerned.
Jochen Bendel (left) and husband Matthias Pridöhl at a musical premiere in Hamburg in 2022. © APress/Imago
In Hanover, Lower Saxony, the so-called "list dogs" cost 720 euros per year, according to Cuxhavener Nachrichten. Bendel and Pridöhl probably already knew that this special feature exists in many places when they got Snoopy from the animal shelter. To see them now introduced for Cuxhaven in black and white – and on the bank statement – outrages the two of them.
Martin Rütter doesn't think much of breed lists – but there are always incidents with American Staffordshire Terriers
In an RTL documentary, dog professional Martin Rütter once took a stand against the practice of list dogs: "Lists were drawn up, usually by incompetent experts and politicians. The selection was really arbitrary. If we were to take the bite statistics, the German Shepherd and German Shepherd mixes would still be in 1st place. But they don't appear on any list." However, there are also repeated incidents with American Staffordshire Terriers: In Austria, there was a fatal attack on a jogger in 2023. In Göttingen, police shot two animals of this breed in 2022 that had attacked their owner. (lin)