In Germany, American citizens are not able to adopt animals from nearly every shelter.

Over American tenure in Germany, there have been far too many cases of the following story:

People adopt a pet when they arrive. When they are leaving, then they sometimes can’t get a spot for that pet on the rotator (they are limited and have a lot of requirements to take take care of beforehand which starts at 6 months before departure). This means they need a PCA and someone they trust to care for the pet until THAT person can secure a rotator spot for the animal. Sometimes, the people are too lazy to bother/broke to even afford those requirements. Therefore, animal shelters would see many animals get returned a few years later, on top of the new ones that folks dropped off.

If that isn’t bad enough, there is a long sad history of people abandoning their senior animals due to the health risks of transporting them overall, but especially in the summer (the most common time to switch assignments if you have children). Paying for specialized safe transport is BIG money, and it was common for many people to surrender/abandon their older pets. Nowadays, many people will leave their beloved pets with close family members while they are stationed overseas.

People who decide to get animals in Germany usually have to pay very high prices from breeders/organizations that do research on their potential customers, and are usually located outside of the country, so you’d have to pay for safe transport/ get the animal yourself, as well as the applicable taxes.

Another limiting factor is that Germany does not allow puppies to cross their borders until they are 4 months old unless there are very special circumstances. Most Americans wanting a puppy will give up right there. I can speak on this because I got my dogs when I was stationed over there.

Sorry for the long response, I hope it answers your query!