Green Party hardliners want to ban dogs from peeing on trees outside amid bizarre claims it kills bushes leading the Vice Chancellor’s wife to label them “completely insane”.
The idea was launched by Silvia Nossek, the district administrator for the Wahring borough in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Nossek, a member of the Green party, said that peeing dogs cause hygienic problems in the beloved Wahringer Schubertpark in the district.
She said: “Dogs should not pee on the grass anymore”
“Nursery and primary schoolchildren walk on their way there. It is also difficult in such a heavily used park to keep the greenery intact [if dogs are peeing].”
Nossek said she is especially worried about the trees which fall victim to peeing dogs.
She said: “If the dogs declare this to be their favourite tree and all start to mark it, then a tree will not survive in the long run.”
Nossek said that dog-owners who are caught multiple times letting their dog pee on the meadow or against a tree should be punished.
She called for a “dog dialogue” with local residents to address the problems.
The plan was however immediately ridiculed by local and national politicians in Austria.
Philippa Strache, the wife of Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache who is the animal welfare spokesperson of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), said the Greens are “on a campaign against animals and their owners”.
Philippa Strache said: “Either this is a late April Fool’s joke, or the Greens have gone completely insane.”
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Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
