She therefore urged the municipal office to check the dog keeping ordinance and leash requirement more frequently, but her submissions, whether in writing or by telephone, were ignored for a long time. "This does not correspond to the citizen-friendly administration that people can rightly expect in Austria," says Ombudsperson Schwetz. In the end, the mayor informed the woman that there were no staff available to enforce the obligation to wear a lead.
The mayor also pointed out the lack of staff to the Ombudsman Board, but at the same time announced controls in co-operation with the police and mountain and nature guards, namely at those places that are mainly visited by non-residents with their dogs. Due to a lack of records, it was no longer possible to find out why Mrs R.'s submissions had not been answered in the past.
"Following the intervention of the Ombudsman Board, the mayor has now finally taken action and has also instructed the municipality's citizen service to document reports of breaches of the leash requirement. The Ombudsman Board therefore considered the complaint to have been resolved," said the Ombudsperson.
Shiba Inu
Picture: (c) Wikimedia Commons/peno4