Major TV program – Fressnapf honors animal welfare heroes for the tenth time

Every day, passionate people care for poor animals in Austria – usually for free and with all their efforts. For them, work is a life’s work and requires a lot of hard work, strong nerves and high financial costs. For ten years, Fressnapf Austria has been bringing committed animal rights activists to the fore and rewarding their tireless efforts.

Prizes from the expert jury „Golden Fressnapf 2023“
The winners of this year’s Fressnapf Award have been selected by an expert jury. This consisted of Helmut Pechlaner, former director of Schönbrunn Zoo and honorary president of the WWF, Eva Persy, the Vienna Ombudsman for Animal Protection, Lukas Pratschker, dog trainer – School of Dogs and dog expert Fressnapf, Maggie Entenfellner, journalist and animal rights activist and Hermann Aigner, Managing Director of Fressnapf Austria/Switzerland.

The big show on crown.tv
You can see the presentation of the ‘Animally Engaged Award 2023’ in the video above and on October 4 at 8:15 PM (repeat: October 6 at 6:00 PM and October 8 at 1:45 PM) on krone.tv. Read here how you can receive krone.tv on your television.

With the ‘Animals Engaged’ initiative, Fressnapf Austria has donated more than two million euros to animal protection since 2014. This year, the state winners were each rewarded with 5,000 euros for their excellent projects. The “Krone” presents all the winners of 2023:

Styria – Together strong for animals
President Antonia Schöllauf and her team of five at Adamhof have made it their mission to help homeless, injured and abandoned animals. In addition to the currently almost 70 house cats, the many stray cats are of great importance to the club. Feral cats are captured, fed, neutered and later released or rehomed.

Upper Austria – Animal assistance in alpine terrain
They help where other rescue organizations can no longer go: The Mountain Rescue Service of Upper Austria uses its specially trained avalanche, search and personal sniffer dogs throughout the country during mountain or urban missions to help people in need. The animalistic, well-trained sniffer noses have already saved lives several times. Linz local branch manager Alexander Seemann received the award with his Hanoverian mixed breed dog “Franziska”.

Vienna – care station for big city reptiles
Judith Kastenmeier (photo) has a big heart for tarantulas, iguanas and giant snakes. The dedicated zookeeper cares for abandoned or confiscated reptiles 365 days a year. Evelyn Kolar, head of the care station at the Haus des Meeres: “The ‘Blue Circle’ stands for animal and species protection in Vienna. We are extremely proud of the award for our work.”

Tyrol – Noah’s Ark from Lake Achensee
25 years ago, Werner and Doris Mai bought an old and dilapidated farmhouse in Maurach am Achensee and fulfilled a dream. Since then, weak, sick or abandoned animals have found a safe haven in the “House of the Animals”. The Mai family has now grown into a number of animal-loving hands: son Roman and his family took over the “Golden Food Bowl”.

Burgenland – An idealist with a heart for cats
The association “We for Animals” Oberwart has been housing, caring for and rehoming animals on a voluntary basis in the south of Burgenland for more than ten years – in a region where no other animal shelter exists. The association’s founder and president, Alice Siebenbrunner, used donations and her own resources to build a cat house, which now serves as a refuge for hundreds of velvet paws.

Vorarlberg – The “hedgehog mother” from the Ländle
Anneliese Dalpez has been active in animal protection for 40 years and runs her purpose-built “hedgehog village” in Bludenz (hedgehog station Nüziders). Every year, more than 300 spiny mammals are collected, cared for and hibernated there. Many young animals, malnourished and sick hedgehogs from all over Austria, were able to survive thanks to the love and expertise of Anneliese and her little helpers.

Carinthia – super sleuths find missing people
300 missions per year in Austria, with a success rate of 95 percent, speak for themselves: The K9 PRO mission team from Carinthia specializes in searching for missing people with its trained dogs. “Last week, with our search dog Tao, we were able to find a man who had been missing for three days, stuck on the mountain,” explains Alexandra Grunow (photo), founder of K9 EXPERTS.

Lower Austria: “RespekTurtle” – Every life counts
Markus Putzgruber has dedicated his life to turtles. In the idyllic Seebarn am Wagram, the former carpenter has created an animal-friendly oasis for exotic animals. In addition to turtles, “RespekTurtle” also cares for parrots, parakeets, geckos, bearded dragons and degus. Markus passes on his knowledge of sensitive animals during tours and lectures.

Salzburg – “Helpers on legs” from animal protection
Julia Toal and Andreas Schmidauer (pictured with “Leni”) founded the non-profit Salzburg association “Helfer auf Pfoten” in 2022. Her focus: training assistance dogs. What’s special: The dogs all come from Animal Welfare. With passion and professionalism, they now help people with disabilities so that they can live their lives with more self-determination.