We start our look at how to visit and live in Zagreb with your pet.
You might have read somewhere on the web that there is a law that prohibits the pets to enter various places in Croatia. So, take it from us (and we are going to give you links as well, although most of those will be in Croatian) when we tell you that there is no law governing whether pets are allowed in bars, restaurants, hotels etc. (for the remainder of this text, I’m just going to be using “bars”, but take it to mean any of the mentioned establishments) in Croatia.
We have a few laws dealing with animals and pets, and none of those mentions bars. There are several laws regarding bar-business (including those mentioning sanitary standards), but none of those mention pets. The key law governing the keeping of animals and pets in Croatia, the Animal Protection Law determines that local governments (“jedinice lokalne samouprave”; will continue to call them LG for the remainder of this text) have the jurisdiction to regulate the conditions and manner of keeping pets.
So, JLSs such as municipalities, towns and the city of Zagreb have their ordinances (“Odluka o uvjetima i načinu držanja kućnih ljubimaca…”) that regulate the conditions and manner of keeping pets. You can read the Croatian, purified and current version of Zagreb’s here. Let us translate the key points in it:
Article 7 says that dogs and other pets are allowed to go anywhere, under control of their owner, if the owner of the establishment allows them in; article 8 describes the locations where pets are banned from (playgrounds, flower-beds, open sports venues, school and kindergarten playgrounds, and at other locations where there’s the possibility of risking the health-hygienic safety and people’s safety).
So, as you can see, the city ordinance tells you that in Zagreb, it’s legal to have pets in bars, it’s just that the bar owner has to make sure the pets don’t jeopardize the health of other people in the bar – which actually seems like quite a reasonable demand! Some owners of such establishments will not allow pets in (which is well within their rights), others will just allow pets on terraces, some of them will apply extra caution with hygiene, and some just don’t care, because – hey, it can be anyone’s hair! In many establishments in Zagreb your pet will be more than welcome, you can expect the waiter to bring you a bowl of water for your dog, some even have permanent bowls with fresh water as they welcome four-legged customers – none of them would be doing that if there was any type of law prohibiting pets! Ethnographic Museum, owned by the City of Zagreb, is pet-friendly (feel free to take your dog with you on weekends, from 10 am until 1 pm), and Archaeological Museum’s bar has been pet-friendly for ages – and both of those places are within their rights, given to them by the city Ordinance.
Other places in Croatia have different ordinances, and most of them are becoming equally pet-friendly as Zagreb. Rijeka, Opatija and Split ordinances say that pets are allowed only with permission by the establishment’s owner, and the atmosphere is changing in Croatia, more and more establishment owners understand that they need to allow their guests to bring their beloved pets along, so bringing your pet to Zagreb and Croatia doesn’t really present much of a challenge these days.
In future articles we will help you with listing those hotels, bars, restaurants, hotels etc. where your pets are welcome, as well as map out those locations where you can let your pets off-leash in Zagreb (the aforementioned Ordinance says that dogs need to be on leash when in public, and no responsible owner will let their dog roam free on the streets of an unknown town; however, there are places with fences where you can take your dog for an off-leash run after that favourite ball of his!)
