Actually, he just wanted to buy a treat for his dog. After a dispute with another dog owner, a 43-year-old caretaker from Bonn left the Zooladen on Bornheimer Straße with painful haematomas on his right hip and legs.

His 65-year-old opponent was now sentenced to a fine of 1400 euros by the Bonn District Court for intentional bodily injury.

This is what happened: On 28 September 2018 the convicted woman wanted to leave the shop with her shopping and her two unleashed four-legged friends. There the caretaker with his blind and deaf dog on a leash met her. Because the two dogs were growling and running towards the unreceptive animal, its owner feared that his female dog would be frightened. In spite of the request, the woman did not call her two pets back, and so the man stood protecting himself in front of his dog and tried to keep the animals at a distance with his feet.

An argument followed. Then the woman drove her shopping cart against the caretaker's hip several times. In court she had tried to gloss over the situation: The other owner had tried to keep one of her weak animals away from him by kicking at it. The only reason the shopping trolley had been involved was because the man wanted to prevent her from leaving the shop. However, a witness confirmed the victim's description as far as possible. She is said to have threatened him at the scene of the crime that he should not talk "nonsense".

If the woman had seen reason, she could have spared herself trouble: At first she refused to suspend the proceedings against payment of 100 euros. As a result, the single woman had received a penalty order for 1,350 euros, but she had also appealed against it.

Now the dog owner must bear the costs of the proceedings as well as the additional 50 Euro. And also: Because she had interrupted the judgement announcement, the district judge threatened her with a fine at the next sound.

(Original text: Leif Kubik; Translation: Mareike Graepel)