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Influencer Anja Zeidler with street dog Mičo, which she gave away.
Flavia SchlittlerDeputy Head of Department People
Influencer Anja Zeider (29) likes to let her almost 300,000 followers participate in her life. As a loving mother, committed vegan, with a heart for animals. Until recently, one was the street dog Mičo, which she adopted from Banja Luka in Bosnia, so she accepted an offer from an intermediary. At first everything seemed to be going well. She, her fiancé and ex-soccer player Milan Anicic (26) and their daughter Jela (2) were blown away by their new companion. Zeidler was happy to post pictures of the dog.
But the animal luck has turned, the former fitness model has given Mičo away. “We tried everything,” she says in her Instagram story. There have been some incidents with the dog. So he jumped in the face of the girl next door, bit Jela and tore the apartment apart. Not only that, despite the help of dog schools and coaches, something hasn’t improved, the relationship with the street dog and her two cats. They hadn’t eaten, hadn’t come home.
«There are definitely a lot of clicks to ‘rescue’ a dog
The Lucerne woman admits that she doesn’t see Mičo to blame, but rather his instinct as a hunting and street dog. Now he lives with a family without small children, he thrives there and is with his brother again.
All peace, joy, pancakes? The best-known animal rights activist Susy Utzinger (53) clearly says no. In an interview with Blick, she describes her point of view.
“I get really upset about stories like this: it is currently happening more and more often that people have decided to buy a dog for emotional reasons and import it or have it imported, but apparently have not given this species enough attention and underestimated the effort involved in keeping a dog. »
The managing director of the Animal Welfare Foundation also sees Zeidler’s rescue of a street dog as problematic. “There are definitely a lot of clicks to ‘rescue’ a dog, but it’s also correspondingly time-consuming,” she says, adding: “We deal with cases every day in which people have decided to have a foreign dog for emotional reasons and they then find out that the dream of this dog and the reality are massively different from each other. Unfortunately, until the decision is made to give the dog away again, a lot of valuable time is often lost for the dog.»
Zeidler’s dog behaved like a young dog does
In addition, the organized dog trade plays with feelings. “Although they call themselves animal protection organizations, they specialize in selling dogs with sad stories to animal-loving people for good money. And by the way: A dog is only saved when it is doing well, and not by ordering it and publishing beautiful pictures with it.»
Although she does not know Anja Zeidler’s case personally, she would ask fundamental questions. “What does someone expect when they get a young dog? That he has already been brought up and knows how people should behave towards children and cats? That he sits quietly in the corner? That would be a very unrealistic idea.”
Your young dog apparently behaved like a young dog does what was his undoing. “Many people underestimate the effort involved in owning a dog,” says Utzinger.
how are you doing right “Dogs are like any other creature: you can’t order them, and they’re almost certainly not exactly how we imagined them to be.” There is only one way to make the right decision for a dog: «You get detailed information about keeping dogs, about dog breeds/types and you get to know the animal in question personally. If the animal is abroad, you go there and get to know it.”