Europe | Canine crushes

Shelters fear an influx of no-longer-wanted lockdown pets

Dogs have made the pandemic more bearable. But what happens when it ends?

|BERLIN

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER owned a succession of pet poodles. Franz Kafka maintained that “all knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers is contained in the dog.” Frederick the Great exclaimed: “The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.” Pets have been deeply embedded in Germanic culture for centuries, but never more so than now. As people seek a cure for covid-induced solitude and angst, demand has surged for dogs, budgies, snakes and even cats.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Canine crushes”

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