Only holidays count – sad high season in the animal shelters!

At a swimming pond in Vienna, a white cat was recently abandoned in a taped-up transport box (see photo below). In a forest, hikers discovered a completely dehydrated dog tied to a tree. In front of a supermarket’s waste area, a cage with a mother dwarf rabbit and her offspring stood in the sun, with an outside temperature of 37 degrees.

Drastic increase in the number of cases in the first week of the holidays
You might think that this individual fate is sad – but unfortunately, the opposite is true! “In the first week of the holidays, we noticed a drastic increase in activity at the Vienna City Animal Rescue Service, with an average of 70 percent! Time and again, we come across animals that have been heartlessly thrown away as trash. Before you acquire a living creature, you should think deeply about yourself and seriously consider whether you can handle this responsibility,” says Thomas Benda, Operations Manager at TierQuarTiers Vienna. Abandoned pets or pets that are not welcome with their owners are a nationwide animal welfare problem, especially during the holidays. For years, there has been a wave of surrendering or abandoning animals in connection with the long school holidays.

Animal shelters are extremely overcrowded and completely overloaded at this time. It is mainly dogs, cats and small animals that people often get rid of inconspicuously. Some of these “holiday victims” are animals that were sweet and cuddly as Christmas presents, but are now seen as nothing more than a burden. There are many reasons why people want to get rid of their animals during the summer months: four-legged friends are not allowed in their holiday home, the prices of animal boarding seem unaffordable and no one can take care of them in the living room. area. Or classics that apply all year round: There is a lack of time, resources and willingness to care for an animal.

No matter why a pet is abandoned by its owner, it always suffers the most in this situation. When an animal is left alone in an unfamiliar place by a trusted person, the animal becomes desperate and panicky. Even if the child physically survives the extremely stressful situation, emotional and physical scars remain. The period at the animal shelter lasts thirty days until a homeless animal is released for adoption – 30 days of waiting, scared and disturbed in an unfamiliar environment, in most cases in vain! Only then does the search for a new home begin. And that can take longer.

Correct behavior with a found animal
Only attempt to catch a free-roaming animal if you do not endanger yourself or your four-legged friend. Please do not take animals that appear to have been abandoned, but inform the responsible authorities (local animal protection, animal shelter, police). Wait for the experts to arrive. You can offer the animal some water. Talk to it in a calm, friendly tone and keep your distance. This way the animal will notice that you are not a danger.