An animal-rescue group has refused to let a Lower Saxony AfD deputy adopt a setter from Italy, telling her the decision was based on her party membership.
Vanessa Behrendt, family-policy spokeswoman for the AfD group in the state parliament, contacted Fortuna Animali about a dog the association is offering for rehoming.
In a WhatsApp exchange seen by Apollo News, she wrote that she and her family were very interested in “the pretty setter bitch Seta”, meaning Setia, and asked for a call if the dog had not already found a home.
The reply came about 15 minutes later. “You are certainly aware that we do foreign animal protection. Because of your political affiliation we are declining to place a foreign dog with you,” the contact wrote.
Behrendt replied that she knew the association worked abroad, that this would not have been the first dog she had taken from outside Germany, and that she had herself worked in animal protection for many years.
“Animal protection, like child protection, should have no political colour, since it should always and exclusively be about the matter itself,” she wrote.
She called the decision “very regrettable” and asked whether the point was really to give the animal a loving home. Her husband, she added, is Italian.
She later posted the exchange on X.
“So one would rather let a fully grown dog languish in an Italian shelter than place it with an AfD politician, with whom it would have had a loving home together with other animals,” she wrote.
It was “sad when political conviction becomes more important than actual animal protection”.
“You’d rather let a dog rot in a foreign animal shelter than give it a loving home, just because the political stance doesn’t fit.”
She then asked supporters not to attack or boycott the association, saying the animals would suffer and that she assumed the volunteers generally wanted the best for them.
Behrendt has sat for the AfD in the Lower Saxony Landtag since 2022.
Before entering parliament she worked as a self-employed dog therapist.
Apollo News asked Fortuna Animali why party membership was decisive. No reply had arrived by the time of publication.
Setia is still listed for adoption. The association describes her as a neutered English setter, born in January 2025, found abandoned and now living with other dogs at a refuge in Cori, Italy.
It calls her sunny and attached to people, and says she needs a family able to cope with a setter’s need for exercise.
Fortuna Animali’s published adoption process asks about experience with dogs, housing and how long an animal would be left alone.
Political views and party membership are not listed as criteria.
The association, a registered charity since 2019, says it supports partners in Italy and places dogs found there with families in Germany.