- When authorities relax a prohibition on the mobility of cats in the municipality, cat owners in a German town will be able to take their pets out for the first time in three months
- To safeguard endangered birds, residents of Waldorf in the southwest of the nation were instructed to confine their cats indoors in May Cats had to be restrained inside with a rope no longer than two meters in length in order to be permitted outside. Cats had to be restrained inside with a rope no longer than two meters in length in order to be permitted o Cats had to be restrained inside with a rope no longer than two meters in length in order to be permitted outside
But starting at 00:01 local time on Monday, the animals will be permitted to wander once more. Owners were compelled to phone a special hotline during the measure's implementation if their cats left the house unaccompanied because the offending animals were kept after being found.
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Any breach would result in a fine for the cat owners. The owner whose cat injured or killed one of the protected birds had to pay up to 50,000 euros.
The authorities have been trying to protect the local crested lark, saying the species is at risk of extinction in the state of Baden-Württemberg and all of Germany.
She said there were only three breeding pairs left in Walldorf itself.
,The crested lark is threatened with extinction in Germany's Waldorf
Activists have criticized the restrictions, saying they will harm the cats' welfare, while at the same time stressing that they support efforts to protect larks.
Millions of birds die naturally each year, but there is no evidence that cat attacks in gardens are causing their numbers to plummet, according to the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
It is not clear if the Waldorf measure helped the birds, but authorities announced they would lift the ban two weeks earlier than expected.
Birds born in the spring are now considered sufficiently developed and less vulnerable.
That's good news, said the mayor of Walldorf, but he and the local cat community may find their joy short-lived: The measure is expected to re-impose itself next spring, and in subsequent years during the breeding season.