‘No one wants to kill pets’ – Logan QLD edition

Logan Pound (QLD) is in the media at the moment, for killing a dog a member of the public claims they wanted to be given the opportunity to save.

An abandoned dog has been put down by Logan City Council despite desperate pleas by a local resident to adopt it.

Cherie Fisher said she first saw the abandoned animal on April 13 and contacted council wanting to help it.

Ms Fisher said she had no agenda other than to save the dog’s life and give it a chance.

“It was left malnourished, covered in a skin condition and who knows what else. Her photo just made my heart bleed,” she said.

Ms Fisher said she visited the pound twice and after three working days understood the dog to be the pound’s property.

She said she offered to buy the animal or foster it at her own expense.

“We are bewildered to understand why will they not take up the offer of help,” she said.

“Is the Logan City Council so flush with cash and kennels they don’t need assistance?”

 

Logan City responded saying the decision to euthanase the dog would have been made by a vet (from The Combined Vets of Logan City Pty Ltd (CVLC)) and that

Logan City Council Animal Management Centre operated a sales and rehoming service for all suitable, unclaimed animals.

“In situations where cats and dogs are lost and become impounded by council, our primary goal is to reunite these animals with their owners,” she said.

“If a dog is not reclaimed by its owner, it is assessed by Logan City Council to see whether it is suitable for inclusion in our sales and rehoming program. which involves a veterinary health check and behavioural assessment.

Which is code for don’t question our authoritah.

So I wanted to take a look at whether Logan is walking their talk in both reuniting pets with their owners and offering a sales and rehoming program.

The first place to find their impound information, was in their Animal Management Strategy 2011-2015*. It showed their pet intakes as the following;

A 13% kill rate for dogs! On the face of it, that seems pretty enviable.

And this report also sings the praises of their relationships with rescue:

Through its daily operations the Animal and Pest Services Branch has established productive working relationships with key stakeholders such as the state government, local government authorities, the University of Queensland and industry groups including the RSPCA, Animal Welfare League, Best Friends Rescue, Working Dog Rescue, Little Paws Kitten Rescue, Dogs Queensland and the Queensland Feline Association.

Based on the fantastic job Logan is doing, the mangy dog was probably too sick to be saved. Case closed.

Except.

Until 2011, Logan City was sending dogs to the University of Queensland for ‘terminal surgery’ – that is, surgery by trainee vets which ends in the death of the pet. In fact, according to Council meeting minutes from that time**, 798 dogs and cats were sent to the university in 2007/08. Just 2.2% of pets left the University alive via their ‘rehoming program’.

These animals show in these figures, not as ‘euthanasias’, but as ‘percentage other organisations’. With that in mind, suddenly their kill rate shoots up from 8% in 2008 – to a much less comendable 36%.

It came at a great financial saving to Council;

During the financial year ended 30 June 2008… the University of Queensland collected 798 animals (561 dogs and 237 cats). The table below shows that Council saved $26,573.00 in vet and disposal costs by supplying unclaimed, impounded animals to the University.

*dusts hands*

 

Backlash about university transfers

Fast forward to 2011, and Logan City came under great fire from their community for these terminal programs. In response, their agreeement from 2008-2013 was reviewed early, and the following changes were made to procedures;

Revised Agreement Proposal (Friday 1 April 2011)**

Any animal signed over by Logan City Council to the SVS which would have been previously euthanased immediately upon its arrival at SVS (as per the previous protocol 2008-2013) will instead be euthanased at Logan City Council’s Animal Management Centre. The cadaver will be bagged, labelled and transported in an University Animal Ethics Committee (UAEC) approved vehicle. This proposal complies with AWAC recommendations.

Animals previously euthanased and in a frozen state will be bagged and labelled and made available to the SVS.

So what this basically means is that while the ‘terminal surgeries’ may have stopped, the killing didn’t. Logan’s 2011/12 figures*** are below:

Despite claiming an excellent relationship with rescue groups and a comprehensive rehoming program, just 725 dogs and 349 cats made it out alive via these channels last year. Compared to 1,504 dogs and 2,101 cats who were killed.

Remember people – don’t question. No one WANTS to kill pets.

References

* Logan Animal Management Strategy 2011-2015

** Animals & City Standards Committee Tuesday 12th April 2011

***Logan City and Logan City Council statistics and factual information (page 6)