As a way of combating the current economic crisis, a charitable organisation in Germany has come up with an innovative way to help those in need… through their pets.

It’s surely a sign of the current tough economic times when you hear of soup kitchens springing up all over one of Europe’s traditionally strong economies – but that’s exactly what has been happening in Germany over the last two years.

However, it’s not queues of people that are lining up outside with empty bowls in their outstretched hands asking “Please Sir, can I have some more?”, but rather – pets!

An organisation called ‘Tiertafel’, set up in 2006 by Claudia Holm, has been lightening the financial burden on pet owners who need it most by providing free food and advice in 20 ‘issuing centres’ dotted all over the country.

Tina Krogull, executive board member of Tiertafel, explains what motivated Holm to set up the organisation over two years ago:

“Claudia, our chairperson, was watching a show on TV about a German family who found themselves living on social welfare payments. They calculated that after bills each month they only had 15 euro left to spend on either food for the kids or food for the family dog that had been with them for years. Naturally, they choose to feed their children and were forced to give the dog to a shelter. The kids were upset and could not understand why the dog had to leave and the dog itself died a few weeks later from the grief of being separated from the family. Claudia saw this and thought she could not let something like this happen again.”

Claudia, already holding down a full time job, found the time to set up her first issuing centre that supplied food to “dogs, cats, rabbits and any other animals people had in their homes but were having trouble feeding due to financial strain.”

News of the service spread and in that first year Claudia, relying on donations of food and time from other people and volunteers, helped 126 pet owners (or customers as Tiertafel like to call them) – feeding 258 pets in total.

In 2008, with 19 offices nation-wide, Tiertafel helped 4,028 customers to feed 6,291 pets on a regular basis. As economic indicators go, that statistic will not exactly have students of Adam Smith or Milton Friedman declaring we are living in another Great Depression, but it does highlight that more and more people are finding it hard financially.

“That’s 6,291 pets not ending up in animal shelters or left in the streets,” says Tina Krogull proudly.

Tina warns, however, that Tiertafel does not facilitate irresponsible ownership of pets or encourage Germans to acquire pets safe in the knowledge that they will be fed by Tiertafel: “We don’t want to take feeding responsibility away from the owner but rather offer support, helping them feed the pet for a few days a month.”

Indeed, not everyone is eligible to get help form Tiertafel:

“People have to show us official documents to show they are on welfare or have very low wages before we help them. If we see that someone who is already poor get a new pet we won’t support them. We’ve had situations where we had to refuse people because they took on new pets, despite having to come to us for their original pets.”

It all seems like a laudable aim and challenges the old adage that it’s a dog’s life, but how does Tina and Tiertafel react to claims that they could be better spending their time helping humans who are in trouble, rather than animals:

“We are helping not only the animals, but also the people that own the animals. Many of these people don’t have social relationships outside their pets. They may be old or on their own and their pets are their only companionship. We have one case of a woman in Frankfurt who is in her eighties. Her husband died years ago and she is in ill-health. This lady is so happy to have the help. She says if her cats die then she too has no reason to live. The cats are her children and they are keeping her alive.”

The Tiertafel organisation, completely run by volunteers and maintained by donations, plans to open one new centre every month this year and they feel their service is especially needed in these tough times. After Christmas it is usually busy too as families who may get pets as presents quickly realise the amount of money involved in their upkeep. So what is in it for people like Tina?

“The only payment we get is to see happy dogs and their happy owners.”

With the constant reminders of the global economic downturn, Tina – herself the owner of three cats – sums up the importance of owning a commodity like a pet:

“To come home to them and see them relaxed and hear them purring is just as good as a two-week holiday in the sun!”

A timely reminder, perhaps, that an animal is for life, and not just for Christmas.

Ciaran Walsh for RT