(Image: PCC 398, Female Smoochiepuss – available tomorrow 5.7.14)
Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter have found the answer to shelter killing… doing things OTHER than killing pets.
Penrith council officers returned 340 animals before impoundment last year, said Noel Fuller, co-ordinator of the Penrith rangers and animal controllers.
340 animals taken straight home, is 340 animals who don’t need to be processed, held, quarantined, vaccinated, fed, walked – and often – found new homes after their owners are unable or unwilling to collect them.
Bringing people’s pets into a pound where they can get sick, mixing with other animals of unknown origin is bad shelter policy. Holding people’s pets to ransom under threat of death if they can’t or won’t pay their fines, is bad shelter policy.
Picking up pets and taking them straight home is good shelter policy which saves lives.
“Out of the 737 animals that went to the shelter last year, 140 were returned to their owner…
If we can’t identify the owner then we take them to the shelter… All the animals that can’t be identified are put onto the Hawkesbury Council website, so that the public have the option of adopting them.”
Proactive redemptions helps keep pet and owner together. All stray pets entering this facility are photographed and listed online. This not only helps owners searching for their pets, but notifies rescue groups of intakes and adopters of potential adoptable animals. Pets can have several life saving options ready to go, BEFORE their impound time is even up.
Proactive redemptions, including photographing lost pets and listing them online, is good shelter policy which saves lives.
“After 14 days they are sent to a proper adoption agency,” Mr Fuller said.
269 were sold to new owners, 254 were rescued by an animal rescue organisation and found new homes
Encouraging adoptions saves lives. Working with rescue groups allow pets a second chance with treatment, rehabilitation and a chance to find a new family.
This shelter engages volunteers to run ‘Friends of Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter’ Facebook page and a PetRescue account. These same volunteers take gorgeous photos of their animals. The shelter willingly processes adoptions, and desexes animals before sale.
Working every avenue to encourage direct-from-pound pet adoptions, and working with rescue groups is good shelter policy which saves lives.
“Once they are there they go through a behavioural and physical assessment. If the dog is aggressive or has a serious injury or illness then we will consider euthanising them, but it is very, very rare… only 25 dogs had to be euthanised as they were unsuitable for rehoming.”
Behavioural assessments tell animal welfare professionals which treatment plan is the most appropriate for each individual pet. Behavioural assessement should not be used to simply pass/fail pets, killing those who at that exact moment in time need treatment to become adoption-ready. Truly ‘aggressive’ pets are – as this pound confirms – extremely rare. In those instances, when prognosis for recovery is determined (by a behavioural specialist) to be poor, then euthanasia is appropriate.
Offering medical treatment and behavioural rehabilitation is good shelter policy which saves lives.
The (live release rate) for animals at the Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter was 92 per cent.
Kill apologists will claim that killing less than 10% of intakes is simply unachievable – that the pets entering council pound facilities are too damaged to be saved in such numbers. However, Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter are doing the things the community are begging ALL pounds and shelters to do – and the result is an 8% kill rate, a safe community and a City which is proud of how it takes care of its most needy pets.
Congratulations to everyone involved in making this shelter such a success.
Source: Daily Telegraph/Penrith Press article ‘Residents are barking mad over impending RSPCA closure and are urging council for a No Kill policy shelter’ – June 13, 2014
I got some excellent feedback on this article, which I think was worth including;
M – “I also think their success would be a fraction of this if it wasn’t for the vollies that run FoHCAS. Shame they never get any credit. They have 10,000 that follow their page and that is where most rescues look, go to, ask questions about the animals. It is about time they got some recognition.”
M – “Most of that stuff like the proactive return to owner etc can be credited to Mandy and Beth at Penrith Council (who are super awesome), not the shelter itself. Noel is their boss – Penrith just use the shelter as their impounding facility for the animals they do have to impound. Just wanted to recognize those ladies specifically for their hard work.”
D – I know FoHCAS work their arses off to ensure those cats and dogs have a chance to get out of that pound. Hopefully all pounds start to realise the benefits of not just working with rescue but implementing many of the strategies currently employed by FoHCAS (like cashback schemes to reduce adoption fees) and just letting the community in to help.
M – Thanks for everybody’s support of FoHCAS, it means a lot to us to know that other rescue savvy people feel that we are making progress and improvements. It’s not been an easy task, and one we are always working on, to do the best for each and every animal.
A big congratulations to everyone involved in saving so many lives. FOHCAS are angels. They work tirelessly, and they never give up on an animal.