The Animal Overflow Problem: Navigating Daily Life at the Bochum Shelter
Enhanced Catter-Isolation Accommodations Installed at Bochum's Animal Shelter
The ever-rising tide of furry and finned friends in need, from captured strays to authorities' seized critters, Bochum and its periphery witness. To tackle this ever- ascending trend, the city of Bochum and the Tierschutzverein Bochum, Hattingen, and Surrounding Areas e.V. (TSV) have joined forces. The association acts as the animals' caretakers before trying to rehome them, but their space has been strained, primarily due to a compulsory quarantine period for health and disease reasons - even for our feline friends. This quarantine rule has left the shelter cramped for months, especially in the feline sector, triggering periodic intake halts.
A Quarantine Container Solution: Brief-term Salvation
To circumvent this roadblock, the TSV and the city of Bochum collaborated on a solution. On June 11, two custom-equipped quarantine containers sprang into action, equipped with power, water connectors, air conditioning, and teeny kitchens for meal prep. Dignitaries such as Mayor Sebastian Kopietz, Nina Schmidt, the TSV's second chairperson, along with administrative and shelter reps, inaugurated these containers.
These containers allow worried cats entry under hygienic conditions, separated from each other. This is important because it's often difficult to tell whether captured or seized animals are immunized or ill. In the new facilities, staff can nurse these scruffy lodgers according to animal welfare regulations, with separate areas, entrance locks, and protective clothing for workers. Successfully quarantined felines can then transition into expansive rehoming rooms, enhancing their chances of finding their forever homes.
The containers' setup amounted to approximately €60,000, generously bankrolled by Bochum city. With this intervention, the shelter temporarily boosted its intake capacity, avoiding an imminent intake standstill.
As for other strategies to manage space in animal shelters, foster care programs, adoption events, community outreach, partnerships with local organizations, shelter design modernization, volunteer programs, and spay/neuter advocacy are often implemented (although specific insights for the Tierschutzverein Bochum or the city of Bochum weren't readily accessible). Reach out to these entities directly or scrutinize their formal communications for more details.
- Implementing a foster care program could be a beneficial addition to the Tierschutzverein Bochum's strategy, allowing temporary housing for pets in private homes until they can be rehomed, thereby alleviating space constraints at the shelter.
- To create a conducive home-and-garden environment for adopted pets, the Tierschutzverein Bochum could collaborate with local home-and-garden organizations to offer advice on pet-friendly landscaping and pet-proofing, enhancing the overall lifestyle for their rehomed pets.
