Overview
- A witness alerted officers around midday on January 8 to puppies being offered from a parked car at Paradeplatz in central Würzburg.
- Police found two roughly three- to four-week-old Malteser puppies in a cardboard box in the vehicle’s footwell during a check.
- The Würzburg veterinary authority seized the animals, which were in poor health, and transferred them to the local shelter for stabilization.
- Four men aged 26, 35, 45, and 57 and a 30-year-old woman were identified as suspects and face allegations including breaches of the Tierschutzgesetz.
- Regional police urged the public not to buy from street or online sellers, while NGO Vier Pfoten reported 737 trafficked dogs and cats last year with 41% of recorded cases in Bavaria.