On July 2nd
2014 we visited the animal shelter with several students from the Second
Chance School of the VHS Aachen.
The animal
shelter has 20 permanent employees, about 3000 club members and approximately
1550 sponsors who support the association with financial and material donations
as well as voluntary work.
This animal
shelter is the second largest association within the metropolitan area of
Aachen.
Mrs Dr Knauf,
director of the shelter, informed us about the activities of the
volunteers and the organisational background of their work.
A primary
task of the association is to promote a protective awareness towards animal
through legal channels in order to safeguard the animal from mistreatment and
cruelty. This is done by way of clarification,
counselling and offering help when problems arise in animal protection
controls. The association takes in both animal that have been dropped off by
their owners and strays. It takes care of these animals before attempting to
pass them on to new owner in return for a “protective fee”.
In the end,
Mrs Knauf took us around the shelter, showing us cats, dogs, house-rats,
birds and rabbits in their shelters.