A young entrepreneur from Haut-Rhin has created an hourly daycare service for dogs, located in Petite France.
Called Patchguard, it allows tourists to quietly visit Strasbourg and its Christmas market and to access establishments prohibited to animals.
The city of Strasbourg opened its doors to it for a three-month experiment on the occasion of its Strasbourg Christmas Capital operation.
If it is positive, it could in the future be deployed in other areas of the city.
"It's a very simple but brilliant idea", welcomes Marie-Françoise Hamard, municipal councilor responsible for animal welfare in Strasbourg. "The idea" is an entrepreneur, Laetitia Lacote, originally from Haut-Rhin, who had it: dog sitting on demand and on time, at a tourist site and by people who have received training in animal welfare. The experiment is launched in Strasbourg during this Christmas market period, for the next three months. But it could become sustainable if it meets the same success as in Mulhouse, where the young woman proposed it first this summer.
Because visiting a tourist place with a dog, especially when there are people, is far from easy.
Man's best friend is not necessarily accepted everywhere.
Some restaurants, shops, museums do not accept them.
No more than the cathedral or the visits via Batorama.
A nightmare for the animal and an uncomfortable situation for the owners.
"Dogs can be afraid of crowds, be run over, they are stressed, drop their ears…", explains Laetitia Lacote.
This is why it launched Patchguard last May.
Good for tourism, good for commerce
La Haut-Rhinoise has opened its structure and already employs one person. Since then, the Patchguard has continued to receive awards such as Animal Friendly, a trophy from the Alsace Tourist Office… For now, the city of Strasbourg has opened its doors to it. Guillaume Libsig, deputy mayor in charge of Strasbourg Capitale de Noël and Joël Steffen, deputy mayor in charge of trade and tourism, actively support this initiative. The site, as well as a fitted out work site, was made available to him. Because the entrepreneur's proposal "responds to a real tourist and commercial need, and is perfectly in line with concerns about animal welfare", assures the new environmental team. An experiment whose feedback, once the Christmas period has passed,will be carefully analyzed in order to deploy this service, possibly, in other sectors of the city.
Concretely, the first Patchguard in Strasbourg is located on Place Hans-Jean-Arp, in front of the Museum of Modern Art, in Petite France. In front of the Covered Bridges more precisely. It is open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. The room of about 18 m2, heated, can keep up to nine dogs at the same time. They will be walked, pampered, brushed. Reservations are possible on the Patchguard website or directly on site depending on availability. The on-call service costs 9 euros for the first hour, 25 euros for three hours. The only requirements are: an up-to-date dog vaccination record, having taken out civil liability insurance, communicating the animal's chip number and its mobile phone number to the team.You will also need to present your identity card and authorize the Patchguard staff to take the dog out of its cage to go for a walk with the animal.
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Strasbourg
Dog
Tourism
Animal protection
Trade
Animals
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