Wuppertal Animal Welfare Association
| Tierschutzverein Wuppertal eV | |
|---|---|
| purpose | Animal welfare |
| Chair: | Deana foreigner |
| Establishment date: | 1862 |
| Number of members: | 1,200 (2009) |
| Seat : | Wuppertal |
| Website: | www.tierschutzverein-wuppertal.de |
The Tierschutzverein Wuppertal eV is an association in the field of animal welfare in Wuppertal .
history
At a board meeting of the Natural Science Association of Elberfeld and Barmen in 1862, under the leadership of Theodor von Lobeck and the Elberfeld naturalist Johann Carl Fuhlrott, the idea of establishing an animal protection association in the two cities was born. The association was founded on June 21, 1862 at the 364th meeting of the natural science association under the name Wupperthal Association for the Protection of Animals .
On December 4, 1862, 260 members had already joined the new association. The membership consisted mainly of members of locally known merchant families, teachers or tradespeople who could find the time to campaign for animal welfare issues in the two industrial cities of Elberfeld and Barmen . In addition to Fuhlrott, the association of poets, writers and Elberfeld city councilor Otto Hausmann and the local and dialect poet Friedrich Storck belonged to the association.
Invoked by the ethical conception that every animal is part of the divine creation, which is to be respected, the association first devoted itself to the living conditions of the working animals, most of which were viewed as a resource to be exploited and which were used in large numbers in the factories. He tried to arouse awareness and compassion in the population through public relations work in the form of writings to the people and especially to the youth.
In the first year of the association's history, Johann Carl Fuhlrott himself wrote a pamphlet in which he pointed to the decline in the songbird population and named the unchecked clearing of the surrounding forests for fuel production and the massive trapping for the purpose of cage in private households as the reason. In his sensational association publication, he also pointed out the connection between the lack of songbirds and a larger insect population and thus aroused an interest in ecological relationships that most were not aware of.
This outreach was very effective. As early as August 1862, a carter who ruthlessly whipped his horses in front of everyone was beaten by an angry crowd with his whip. In addition to public relations work, the association organized visits to the animal welfare congress in Hamburg and networked with other animal welfare associations. From the beginning, the association was open to women and their work, who increasingly became members.
Equipped with good "finances" - in the first year alone, they took in 100 thalers, six silver groschen and six pfennigs - and supported by local authorities and officials, the association denounced the conditions at the municipal slaughterhouse on Brausenwerth . It was customary there to make slaughtered animals docile with a handle in the eye socket; the association is working towards a ban on this method, known as "eye piercing". In the following years he turned against slaughtering and vivisection , against the excruciating transport conditions for slaughtered cattle and for the good treatment of draft animals from horse cabs , carts and horse-drawn trams . In view of the slaughter of African elephants in the German colonies for the purpose of obtaining ivory and using them as work animals, the animal welfare association suggested breeding them in order to conserve the natural population.
Barmer animal lover Johann Casper Engels, a member of the Barmer manufacturing family Engels, from which also Friedrich Engels emerged, was in the Barmer plants near the Kohlenweg of Heckinghausen after Lichtscheid the Tränkbrunnen to drink of draft horses and dogs and a sandstone building on which it in Name of the animal welfare association with a Schopenhauer quote urged the fight against animal abuse and vivisection. In 1930 he had the Berlin sculptor Reinhold Kübert made the bronze relief “Jesus treats an abused animal” for his garden, which his widow donated to the animal welfare association after his death. He handed it over to the Barmer Beautification Association , which installed it in a niche in the Dicke Ibach staircase . There it was presumably stolen by metal thieves in 2006 .
During and after the First World War, the idea of animal welfare was of secondary importance to most. Rodents and other small animals served mainly as food in the so-called turnip winter and the problem of abandoned and killed pets that could no longer be fed by their owners took on dramatic proportions. There was no animal shelter at that time, but an animal killing station supported by the association at Barmer Hohenzollernplatz and one at Barmer Rauenwerth , where found animals were painlessly killed with carbonated gas every Monday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and every Wednesday before they were killed were incinerated in the municipal waste incineration plant at Klingelholl . In this way around 1925 around 1000 found animals were killed annually by the employees of the association.
During the time of National Socialism , the stricter Animal Welfare Act came into force on February 1, 1934 . Not hostile to the National Socialist movement, the Wuppertal Animal Welfare Association welcomed the new legal situation, the main idea of which was ostensibly that an animal should no longer be viewed as a thing, but rather a fellow creature, whose mistreatment should be punished. With the end of the Second World War , animal welfare again became a marginal issue. The rebuilding of the club life succeeded until 1949. The club had to face the same problems in the post-war period as in the previous decades, whereby at least the abuse of draft animals quickly decreased due to the growing motorization.
The first association-owned animal shelter was opened on March 6, 1955 at Tiergartenstraße 198 , when a private dog shelter was taken over there. The association set up 13 individual boxes for dogs with an indoor stall and cage, as well as an outdoor exercise area on the sloping property for 61,000 DM (of which DM 15,000 grant from the city of Wuppertal). A feed kitchen, heated indoor facilities for small animals and birds and a veterinary room were set up, but also a killing room, which was added to the house in 1957 along with an anteroom and a garage.
With the help of their own VW transporter , injured and found animals were brought to the animal shelter from 1958, a central task to this day. Soon the shelter's capacity was no longer sufficient and the lengthy search for a non-neighborhood conflict-free replacement home began. In 1976, the farmer Willi Henning provided an area and stables on Vohwinkeler Feld near Friedrichshöhe in the Wuppertal residential area Osterholz (district Vohwinkel ), at that time far from residential development, and took over the animal care with his wife. In 1988 the property was bought, restored and expanded by the Wuppertal Animal Welfare Association. Here 20 to 25 dogs and 40 to 50 cats have their habitat. The modern facility also houses various small animals , birds , birds of prey , lizards and turtles .
In January 2013, the contract with the city was terminated by the association for financial reasons, which regulated the collection of found animals - a municipal duty that is financed by the city. Found animals have been brought to Remscheid since then. According to WZ-online, the city of Wuppertal was not ready to adjust the rent, which has remained high since 1991, to today's requirements.
At the beginning of March 2016 it became known that the animal welfare association was giving up its animal shelter. The employees were dismissed for September.
Goals of the association
The day of the 1,200-member association strives for the prevention and detection of animal cruelty and animal abuse of any kind, the accommodation of abandoned and delivered animals to animal rights and the inclusion of animal welfare in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany .
Chair
The chairwoman of the executive board was from 1969 to 2012 Marlis Tempel (1929–2015), a former city councilor of the city of Wuppertal. In 2005 Marlis Tempel founded the AG Tauben in order to get the pigeon problem around the town hall in Barmer under control in a humane way. The pigeons lay in the house their eggs , which then of animal lovers against plaster - dummies are replaced. For more than 42 years of service in the Wuppertal Animal Welfare Association and 20 years of commitment as chairwoman, Tempel received an award from the State Animal Welfare Association and the Golden Badge of Honor from the German Animal Welfare Association.
Marlis Tempel was replaced in November 2012 by Deana Ausländer in the position of chairwoman.
literature
- Klaus Ulrich Grigo: About animals, perpetrators and animal rights activists (history of the Wuppertal Animal Welfare Association); In: Tierschutz ist Zukunft - Festive Brochure for the 150th Anniversary , Tierschutzverein Wuppertal, Wuppertal, 2012
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Tierschutzverein Wuppertal, history
- ↑ a b Fundtiere: From 2013 new contact person Westdeutsche Zeitung (online) from December 14, 2012
- ↑ Claudia Kasemann: scandal at the shelter: Association announces contract with the city . Westdeutsche Zeitung (online) from April 26, 2012
- ↑ Eike Birkmeier and Eike Rüdebusch: Animal shelter is about to end. In: wz.de. Westdeutsche Zeitung, accessed on March 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Wuppertal animal shelter is about to close! In: diestadtzeitung.de. Retrieved March 4, 2016 .
- ^ Animal rights activist Marlis Tempel has died. In: wz-newsline.de. Retrieved September 22, 2015 .
- ↑ List of winners of the ring of honor of the city of Wuppertal ( Memento from February 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Werner-Steinbach.de, accessed April 2009
- ↑ New start for pigeon houses in the city, August 3, 2006 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , WZ-Newsline, accessed June 2008
- ↑ Anniversary: Honor for 42 years of commitment in the animal welfare association
