Meanwhile in Austria: Animal Protection Act

... or: The total chaos of politics, man!
I'm sorry for going "off-topic" today, but the things that have been going on in Austrian law just make me so, so angry! Please forgive me, but I have to share this.




Austria just changed its Animal Protection Act, which in itself wouldn't raise an eyebrow under normal circumstances. After all, we're rather far behind on the grand scale of things when it comes to all things animal. No big deal, right?
Ha.
Austria is one of the few countries with a total no-kill-policy. Our shelters aren't allowed to euthanize animals just because there are too many and vets are allowed to deny euthanasia to people wanting to get rid of healthy animals. It's a good thing, a wonderful thing, a thing we animal rights activists are rather proud of.
One of the few remaining problems are puppy mills and illicit animal trade. The new bill tried to fix that. And succeeded devastatingly.

Before this new bill, online trade was exempt from a series of restrictions concerning the sale of pets. Selling your sick, worm-riddled puppies online was the only way to get rid of them at all, hidden beneath personal ads so you couldn't be easily identified by law. Restricting that seemed reasonable, right?
The new bill forbids the sale of pets for anyone who isn't a certified breeder, farmer or animal shelter.
Everyone.
I say again: EVERYONE.

If you have to find a new home for your dog because you got a divorce, you're fucked.
Broke both legs and can't walk anymore? Fucked.
Grandma died and her dog needs a new couch? Fucked.

The best - worst - thing about this bill is the assumption that the shelters will simply take in all those animals because, that's what they're there for, right? Worked so far, right?
False.
Austrian shelters are overflowing and have been for years, which means that it - and many other European countries - has an enormous amount of animal rights NGOs, working privately and from home without a steady shelter. These NGOs use foster homes for animals instead of cages in a building, meaning that each and every one of those pets lives with a family until they find a new home. They do not get paid and they don't get subventions- monetary recompensation- from the government, it's just people helping people and their animals when they need it.
And because it's really hard (well, I guess it's really hard, since the government was unable to make an exemption for them) to discern puppy mill farmers from animal rights activists and foster carers, it's now illegal to foster animals if you don't meet specific criteria. The only one known so far are the need for a separate quarantine room and some kind of license that costs about 600€ (about 720 $). And even if you meet those (and all the other) criteria, you still aren't allowed to find a new home for that dog or cat you've taken in, be it via the internet, flyers or word of mouth, because that's illegal now too.
Most of those NGOs won't be able to pay the licensing fee. They definitely, absolutely, won't be able to convince each of their foster families to pay a hefty sum and maybe dedicate a whole clean room to animals that obviously aren't sick and don't need it. And since most of the government officials are really shifty when it comes to grey areas in laws, a very, very big number of NGOs won't get the "trade exemption" needed to be allowed to advertise their animals publicly.

So where will those animals go?
The shelters can't take them because they are full. Taking in more animals would force them to break another law and lose public funding (and there's that whole jail thing).
You aren't allowed to find new homes on your own.
The vets aren't allowed to euthanize healthy animals.

I don't even want to think about the two options left.