{"id":6303,"date":"2025-07-31T13:11:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/?p=6303"},"modified":"2025-09-11T17:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:50:15","slug":"meet-the-harley-davidson-enthusiast-fighting-to-rescue-stray-dogs-across-western-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/meet-the-harley-davidson-enthusiast-fighting-to-rescue-stray-dogs-across-western-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Harley-Davidson enthusiast fighting to rescue stray dogs across western Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jens Waldinger has three priorities in life: family, animals and riding his Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their brown, trusting eyes, hope-filled smiles and waggy tails, it\u2019s easy to see how dogs earned the nickname of \u201cman\u2019s best friend\u201d. Some of them even come along for the ride, donning some doggles and enjoying the breeze on a Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> or sitting smartly in a sidecar. This is nothing new \u2013 a flick through the pages of The Enthusiast\u00ae<\/em> from more than a century ago has no shortage of dogs setting off on adventures alongside their motorcyclist owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, unfortunately, not all of these loyal companions are fortunate enough to land themselves in loving homes \u2013 or, at least not immediately. Jens, who lives in a small village in the Hunsr\u00fcck region of western Germany, is stepping up to give many of these pooches a fresh chance, devoting much of his free time to rescuing street dogs abandoned by their owners and earmarked for death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDogs have always been an important part of my life, since very early childhood,\u201d says Jens. \u201cA big turning point for me came in 2011, when I saw what was happening to the street dogs in Ukraine ahead of the UEFA European Championship \u2013 they were being systematically slaughtered. The brutal reality is that, in many countries, stray and abandoned animals are often euthanised after a short time, often a couple of weeks. That was the moment I realised I need to do more than just cuddle my own dog at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAt first, I travelled to Ukraine as a volunteer to help catch dogs for neutering. But I wanted to do even more, so I founded my own organisation. Since then, I\u2019ve built two animal shelters that house around 500 animals, helped several thousand animals find loving homes, and rescued even more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jens has faced many challenges in his passion for saving animals, from government bureaucracy to public indifference, but his goal remains unchanged: to save as many animals as possible from being destroyed. Now, he is collecting donations to build a rescue and intake centre in Bitburg, Rhineland-Palatinate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, my biggest concern is being able to continue providing for the animals in our care,\u201d he says. \u201cWe receive no government support and rely entirely on donations \u2013 but with rising costs and people having less money to spare, many donations are, sadly, starting to disappear. If anyone wishes to help, even small donations, or simply sharing our posts on social media makes a huge difference, and every bit of support counts and helps us to continue saving animals lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the limited free time he has left when not spending time with his family and rescuing neglected animals, Jens finds solace and peace in riding his Harley-Davidson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRiding is really my last true hobby,\u201d says Jens. \u201cAs you can imagine, working in animal rescue means witnessing a lot of heartbreaking things. Climbing onto my Harley-Davidson V-Rod\u00ae<\/sup>, starting the engine, and cruising off \u2013 that\u2019s my form of meditation. In that moment, I forget all my worries and everything that weighs me down. I just enjoy the ride, the wind, the scenery, and the feeling of freedom. Whenever the weather\u2019s good, you\u2019ll find me on a bike at every chance I get, often alongside my wife on her Sportster\u00ae 883.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my greatest memories of riding is of Hamburg Harley Days this year \u2013 I\u2019ve never experienced anything like the parade, which was absolutely amazing,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe feeling was simply gigantic, thousands of awesome motorcycles, cheerful people lining the streets and cheering us on \u2013 the atmosphere was phenomenal, and it showed what riding a Harley-Davidson is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find out more about Jens\u2019 project, click here<\/strong><\/a> of visit the Facebook page<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jens Waldinger has three priorities in life: family, animals and riding his Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-6303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7626,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303\/revisions\/7626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}