Weird hairstyles, happy mistresses and masters and lots of barking: the international pedigree dog exhibition at the Erfurt exhibition center attracted around 10,000 onlookers over the weekend.
This is below the level of the pre-Corona years, said a spokeswoman for the fair on Sunday.
"But we're still satisfied." After all, the classic trade fair business has only been up and running again for two weeks.
In addition, strict requirements of an animal protection dog regulation introduced at the beginning of the year would have applied to the dog show, to which a pedigree cat exhibition was also linked.
It is intended to prevent animals from so-called torture breeds from being shown – i.e. with breed characteristics that are artificially induced and cause pain for the animals.
This applies, for example, to docked tails.
The exhibitors would have had to show a corresponding veterinary certificate, said the Erfurt official veterinarian Ulrich Kreis on Sunday.
The veterinary office in Erfurt checked compliance with the requirements on site, which led to long waiting times for dog owners at the entrance, especially on Saturday.
Not everyone would have complied with the requirements.
"We fished out quite a few," said Kreis.
For example, individual dogs with breathing problems or docked tails should not have been shown.
As a rule, the owners would have understood the controls, reported the veterinarian.
But there were also some discussions.
The state chairwoman of the Association for German Dogs (VDH), Marianne Müller, criticized in a statement on Sunday that "the short-term general decree of the city of Erfurt in relation to the animal welfare dog ordinance made organization and implementation considerably more difficult".
2400 reports of originally announced 4000 pedigree dogs have been withdrawn.
Around 1600 dogs were represented in Erfurt.
Eleven breeding clubs and the VDH regional association informed the visitors about dog breeding.
140 pedigree cats were also shown.