For eight weeks, a brown labrador dog roamed through the counties of forchheim, erlangen-hochstadt and the city of erlangen – looking for her home. Now andrea schopfel’s franken dog rescue team and christoph reh, chief superintendent of the uttenreuth police station, were able to secure the dog’s needle in erlangen near the parade ground. They brought the animal to the erlangen animal shelter. It is considered lost property: the dog is chipped but not registered, so that the owner could not be determined until now. A search report was also not received in the past weeks. This leaves only two possibilities. "Either the labrador comes from very far away or the owner wanted to get rid of the dog", explains christoph reh, the animal protection officer of the erlangen-land police department, who was present at the security operation on saturday. Capturing this was almost as adventurous as the odyssey of the female dog. "It was the connen of the search dog team. He worked tirelessly 24 hours a day, seven days a week", praises the work of schopfel and her animal welfare volunteers.
On the road since february
As early as february, andrea schopfel had been asked to help in the search for the labrador, which was still on the loose in the grafenberg area at the time. The dog was trusting. However, she did not accept the food provided. And as soon as you reached out for it, it ran away. "No dog likes to be alone outside and fight for survival", says andrea schopfel from gunzenhausen, who took over here. After the reported sightings, she made a map to follow the route of the labrador. At that time the dog was already on the move in igensdorf and the area around neunkirchen am brand. Eventually she ran further and further in the direction of bubenreuth and erlangen. The map shows that the labrador spent most of its time there. Nevertheless, the often up to 25 messages per day of the supporters caused some confusion. "For a while we thought there were two labradors on the way", says, tells andrea schopfel. Because at the same time the animal welfare officer received sighting reports from grafenberg and erlangen. Andrea schmidt and ines becker then set up feeding stations at the places where the dog was seen most often. These were videouberwacht. The two employees from erlangen visited seven sites every day and stocked them with treats. But the labrador did not seem to be hungry, many burghers set up feeding stations along the dog’s route or tried to catch him themselves. The well-intentioned behavior was counterproductive for the safety of the dog. "Nadja then distributed flyers and asked people to leave the dog alone so that it could be secured", explains schopfel. Because of the attempts to catch her, the dog ran onto the straw, which she usually avoided. That the dog would fall victim to traffic was one of the major concerns of schopfel and reh.
