Nationwide 15.7 million cats live sheltered with their keepers. However, feral conspecifics vegetate in secret, multiply uncontrollably and thus further worsen the situation of the animals. In Mannheim, the municipal council wants to tackle the problem.
Mannheim (dpa / lsw) - Mannheim cat owners could soon be forced to register their animals with a chip or ear tattoo. The Mannheim municipal council is voting today on whether this instrument should curb the rapid reproduction of wild cats and the resulting great animal suffering. This would make it easier for free-ranging cats to be returned to their owners and no longer contribute to uncontrolled reproduction. If the administration's cat protection regulation found a majority in the council, Mannheim would be the first major city in the southwest with such a regulation. So far, according to the State Animal Welfare Association, only 34 smaller communities from Aidlingen (Böblingen district) to Wurmberg (Enzkreis) are using the 2013 amendment to the Animal Welfare Act.
However, the ordinance proposed by the city against neglect of the often injured, malnourished or sick animals does not go far enough for animal rights activists. The faction LI.PAR.Tie, consisting of the left, the party and the animal protection party, considers the castration of animals to be indispensable. The city, on the other hand, is pursuing the "capture, castrate, release" principle due to legal concerns. Because: "A castration obligation represents a massive encroachment on the constitutionally guaranteed property rights of cat owners and should be the last measure to be taken."
The state animal protection officer Julia Stubenbord describes the proposal of the second largest city in Baden-Württemberg as a "strange variant". She also does not share the legal doubts about a castration obligation for owner cats. "I'm not aware of any lawsuits anywhere in Germany."
