Hamburger Tierschutzverein von 1841 e. V.

About us

For 180 years the Hamburger Tierschutzverein von 1841 e.V. (HTV) has been campaigning for animal rights. With our 5.000 members, we‘re an NGO that operates the second-biggest animal shelter in Germany – every year, our 100 employees take care of around 10.000 animals.

We work to fight against violations of German animal protection law, illegal puppy trading, animal testing and factory farming – as well as more protection and rights for pigeons, stray cats and a change of the Hamburger Hundegesetz.

Without membership fees, sponsors and donations we couldn’t work effectively for more animal rights. As a private institution we only receive a very small funding from the city for those animals who have turned up without owner in Hamburg or have been confiscated by the city’s veterinary departments – those funds however barely cover our expenses for those animals. As we also take care of many other animals we heavily rely on donations to cover the costs of keeping our shelter running.