Dr Hans Mosser, a Vienna based radiologist has rescued the first dogs from the Hamburg death camp.

Hans, who edits the Austrian dog magazine WUFF, has through its pages, waged war on the breakdown of democracy in Germany and vowed to save as many of its innocent victims as he can.

On November 18, 2000, Hans attended a symposium in Düsseldorf, of organisations who are united in this fight. Representatives of the European press attended along with veterinary organisations and animal protection organisations Europe wide. Although the Kennel Clubs of United Kingdom, Austria and France have thrown their weight against the barbarous and undemocratic acts of the German states, the German organisation was not represented. High on the agenda was how to save innocent dogs, some of whom are proven to be friendly and known to be family pets.

In Hamburg, the state which is ahead in the barbarism stakes and whose city's ineptitude caused the current breakdown of democracy nationwide, two stray dogs picked up and brought to the Police in June, 2000 were identified as black pitbull bitches, aged about 12 months. According to Stefan Marks, Press Officer for the Hamburg Department for Health and Social Affairs, responsible for enforcing the new dog control legislation: "All strays are first taken to the Tierheim Süderstrasse for a veterinary check. If they are healthy and on the list of dangerous dogs, they are taken to the new Hunde Klinik Zentrum at Hamburg docks." This was eventually what happened to dog No. 36 and dog No. 37 as the two young bitches came to be known.

The dogs had passed a temperament test which showed they were friendly and not aggressive, though they had never been taught to obey simple commands like "sit" and "down." Recently dogs, Numbers 36 and 37, were transferred back to the Tierheim Süderstrasse, where sick dogs are attended by the vet. But the appointment with the vet scheduled for Monday, November 20, was for a very final form of veterinary treatment, euthanasia. It is still illegal to kill healthy dogs in Germany but the Hamburg authorities gave four reasons for breaking this law:

1.    Breed - Pitbull
2.    Could not be rehomed in Hamburg City or Hamburg State or most of Germany
3.    Been in the care of the Hamburg authorities for 4 months
4.    Although good temperament tested, not rehomeable elsewhere because they were completely untrained.

This last fact was incorrect, after they were removed from the Tierheim and checked by a veterinarian, who hid them for two days, they made their first public outing in four months. They met their rescuer in the car park of a Düsseldorf hotel. Dr Hans Mosser described what took place on Sunday, November 19: "This morning I got the two female black Pitbull Terriers, who were so tremendously friendly to me, although they have all the reasons in the world not to be friendly to humans, when they were brought by two people from Hamburg. We metat the parking lot of the hotel where I stayed overnight in Düsseldorf. I was there with Gerald Pötz and his dog Toni." Gerald is the Chief Reporter for WUFF and Toni is his American Staffordshire Bullterrier. Hans and Gerald named the dogs Lucy and Sunny.

Hans confirmed that the dogs had a friendly nature and were kept together in the Hamburger Hunde-KZ, but they scrapped at feed times, so now when fed, they are fed well apart. With other dogs Hans goes on to say, "Gerald's dog Toni was very happy to meet such nice girls, but Lucy did not really like Toni´s interest in her. Sunny likes Toni very much, and they play rather wildly in the WUFF-house right now." Lucy does have a pain in her leg so she had an appointment with the vet on Monday, November 20, after all, but for the first time in months Lucy will be going home straight afterwards.

Hans feels uneasy about his fellow medical colleagues, "When I met these two bitches in Düsseldorf and the two people from Hamburg told me that they should have been killed the next day, I suddenly thought, what kind of veterinarian must this be, who can kill two bitches, running to him as they did to me, not knowing me before, but being so friendly to me. They certainly would have run like this to the vet, awaiting them with his killing injection. I must admit, this meeting and my sudden thoughts revealed to me even more of the horror that is happening in Hamburg than I already felt before."

Hans is angry at the Hamburg authorities and at vets, who act as servants to these regulations, killing dogs with a good temperament, he has written to the president of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Veterinarians, Dr. Jäger, the German Federal Chamber of Veterinarians, Prof. Pschorn asking for their comments about euthanisation of healthy dogs.

Following a request on the WUFF Homepage there are already several people prepared to give a home to Lucy or Sunny, however, Hans will keep one of them himself.

In Düsseldorf he met a representative of Lufthansa, who will help bring dogs from Hamburg to Munich at very little cost. Vier Pfoten, the biggest Austrian animal protection organisation has decided to help in the rescue operation.

If the German Innenminister Konferenz this week, shows that the Hamburg dogs are not rehomeable in Germany, WUFF will launch its network for of bringing dogs to Austrian homes.

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