Overview
- The Deutscher Tierschutzbund, speaking through Lea Schmitz, urges people to skip live pets as presents because shelters in NRW and across Germany are already near capacity.
- The group says getting a pet should never be a snap choice and notes that rabbits and other small animals need careful, species-appropriate care.
- Animal shelters expect extra surrenders after Easter, especially of rabbits and small pets, based on the recurring holiday spike in demand.
- Spring brings a surge of kittens from outdoor and street cats, with many dying before people find them, a pattern German shelters call the 'Kätzchenschwemme.'
- The federation calls for a nationwide neutering requirement for free-roaming pet cats to cut kitten births, a policy push that has not been enacted.