Landlady accuses:

“Dozens of dogs are being hoarded in my house!”

The many dogs were even contaminating the drinking water in the house fountain with their droppings. (archive photo)(Bild: ZVG)

The best-known animal hoarder in Lower Austria would have had to leave her home in October 2023. She and her dogs are still occupying the property, which the mayor has already declared uninhabitable. When and how will this tragedy end, the villagers and landlady asked themselves.

With 40 to 60 dogs, a self-proclaimed animal rights activist has been leaving a trail of devastation and enormous annoyance for the neighbors through Lower Austria since 2018. The authorities have also already decided on dozens of administrative criminal proceedings against her in at least five different locations.

Drama began in the summer of 2023
The "animal lover" moved to a small village near Waidhofen an der Thaya in the Waldviertel with a companion and 42 dogs in the middle of the previous year. She only wanted to spend four and a half months there as a temporary solution with "a maximum of two dogs", she had explained to the landlady - the "Krone" reported several times about the country's best-known animal hoarder.

Rental contract already ended in October
Many proceedings are still pending: Although the woman should have moved out long ago, the house with the dogs is still being "occupied". Neither the pending eviction action nor a complaint of rental fraud have changed this.

The authorities are seeking to ban the woman from keeping the animals, as the many dogs were polluting the yard so badly that even the well water was contaminated. This prompted the mayor to declare the house uninhabitable. The neighbors also reported the permanent disturbance of peace and smells. "When will this finally end?" asked the desperate landlady.