In the 1980’s a group of concerned community members realised that the way the local Council was processing its pets was inhumane and largely barbaric. At a nearby rubbish tip, in a derelict building, unclaimed pets were simply shot and buried.
Lithgow Dog Pound at the Garbage Tip ~“A dreadful place where the lost dogs spent their last days. Our Branch shamed that council into building a better pound & hiring a vet to euthanase the unclaimed dogs instead of shooting them.” Photo – Save Our Blue Mountains RSPCA Shelter
These pet-lovers realised that a local animal shelter was urgently needed.
The community worked to raise the money, to buy the land & build the shelter. They did so under the auspices of ‘The Blue Mountains branch of the RSPCA’, and under the legal name of the RSPCA NSW.
The community organisation purchased land – an 11 acre site in Katoomba in 1980, at a cost $35,000.00 They also bought two retail spaces, in Katoomba ($125,000) and Springwood ($135,000) in 1989.
People bequeathed their homes, large amounts of cash were given & many thousands of residents gave continual donations, all in the belief that this Branch would build a facility which would forever provide shelter for animals in need.
We… became the most successful Branch in NSW with almost 1000 members and a continual income from the two retail shops we purchased in Springwood & Katoomba, we used that income to pay all our outgoings, including wages for our shelter staff.
In 2007, both retail shops were closed:
Steven Coleman became CEO in 2007 & within a short time he had both our shops, the house & our shelter valued, his plans to sell our assets were made years ago. He has sold the house & the Katoomba shop, the Springwood shop is currently being offered for sale for $680,000 & the shelter is next on his list. He always leases the properties first so that he can tell the Directors that the properties are no longer used by the RSPCA.
Now, the organisation is looking to close the Katoomba shelter entirely…
“It’s not morally right. It belongs to the Blue Mountains, it belongs to us,” said Silvia Ford, one of the early members of the local RSPCA branch who built the now doomed animal shelter in Katoomba.
Ms Ford joined the branch in 1979 and still has a copy of the advertisement in the Gazette the following year offering an 11-acre “hobby farm” in Mort Street for $35,000. Ms Ford said she was able to put a deposit on the land, thanks to the late Mary Thompson of Blackheath, who had died and left her house to the Blue Mountains RSPCA.
From that day on, Ms Ford said, the branch members worked tirelessly to create the shelter. They held open days, street fairs, bought and operated op shops in Springwood and Katoomba, begged, pleaded and scrounged where they could.
Local individuals and companies donated materials, people donated both money and time. They converted an old shed into a cattery, then progressively built more and more kennels down the back.
“We built the place bit by bit as we got the money,” Ms Ford said.
Katoomba RSPCA animal shelter ‘belongs to the community’
When RSPCA NSW has sold property, the money is taken to Sydney, rather than returned to the local community.
The RSPCA NSW has turned down the Blue Mountain’s Branch request to have the shelter returned to them at no cost. SoCares vice president David Atwell has also put their organisation forward as a potential option for the future of the shelter;
“We operate across much of NSW with 30 rescue groups as members along with our Wyong animal care facility.
“The RSPCA is not the only animal welfare group capable of operating a successful shelter.
“This decision by the RSPCA [to close the Katoomba shelter] has left everyone stunned … the people of the Blue Mountains have every right to be angered at this decision.”
The community is fighting back, trying to protect the animals absurdly, from the state’s largest animal welfare organisation. People interested in following the story, can leave messages of support at the Save Our Blue Mountains RSPCA Shelter Facebook page.
I am shocked that the RSPCA would behalf in such an immoral way.
It’s great that Silvia and co got a shelter up and running, but the RSPCA taking over was the best thing for the animals.
At the time of take over, dozens of animals were suffering from severe cat flu, ringworm, calici virus and not receiving treatment.
Silvia was also known to euthanise animals for pretty shitty reasons….
It’s all well and good for her to get on her high horse and insist that shes done it before and she can do it again, but truth is, she did not do a good job.
And the fact that she openly spoke on FB about her disappointment that SoCares would like to take over the shelter as opposed to helping the branch get it back…. Well that shows it’s all about her EGO and NOT about the animals.
The Blue Mountains branch have no doubt been an asset to the animals in the community, but the branch should stick with fundraising, they should NOT be operating a shelter.
Maxi,
The money to purchase the land and build the RSPCA Blue Mountains Shelter was raised by the RSPCA Blue Mountains Branch, a Branch of the RSPCA. The RSPCA were always in charge of the facility. When Silvia Ford retired in 2002/3 RSPCA NSW (Yagoona) chose to be in full control of the Branch – meaning that they took all of the money away from the Blue Mountains Shelter and attempted to manage the Shelter from Sydney.
The euthanasia rate at the Blue Mountains Shelter during the time that Silvia Ford was Branch administrator was less than 1%. Silvia Ford very, very, actively avoided euthanasia – this can be attested to by any of the employees who worked with her during her 26 years at the Blue Mountains Shelter.
The euthanasia rate of RSPCA NSW (Yagoona) has sat around the 50% for decades. I don’t know where you are getting your figures from.
Approximately 2 years AFTER Silvia Ford retired there was an outbreak of parvo. This had NOTHING to do with Silvia Ford who no longer worked there. The health of the animals while Silvia Ford was administrator has never been contested by anyone but you.
The shelter was opened in 1981 and has served the City of the Blue Mountains in re-homing pets; reuniting animals with owners; investigating cruelty complaints; promoting responsible pet ownership in the Mountains by ensuring animals are desexed, micro-chipped, vaccinated; reducing the feral cat population by instigating a desexing program- just a few of the many, many, things which were only possible because of Silvia Ford.
A few years after Silvia Ford retired all of the resident animals, including (12) dogs and cats that lived at the shelter (instead of being euthanased), livestock, and birds were euthanased, and the two pigs, Horace and Matilda, were shot in the head – all actions carried out by, and under the command of, RSPCA NSW.
SoCares do not have the money to purchase the Blue Mountains shelter (current estimates for the property sit at around 1.2 million dollars, RSPCA NSW is not going to sell it at a discount, they are a money making business).
The ‘issue’ with SoCares lies in the fact that they ought to be backing up the Blue Mountains RSPCA, ensuring that the Mountains is not left without a service that has a mandate to look after all animals (not just companion animals). If RSPCA NSW thinks that someone else might take up the cause it _will_ bow out.
The Blue Mountains is a World Heritage Listed National Park – it is home to all sorts of animals which the RSPCA currently has a mandate to look after. They are currently losing themselves in idiocy but need to be brought back to the powerhouse that they once were rather than being lightly and gently let off the hook.
SoCares can only, as is their mandate, look to rehoming companion animals. SoCares is not a registered charity (yes, that is different to having authority to fundraise for charitable purposes) meaning that if they attempt to run a shelter of their own, (rather than being contracted to run a pound with the allowance to rehome unclaimed animals) they would be forced to spend just about every cent they have on all the bills which the RSPCA is currently exempt from.
If it is egotistical to care that the City of the Blue Mountains not be left without a proper animal facility and service, then, yes, Silvia Ford is guilty as charged.
Who am I? The bookkeeper (employed by the Blue Mountains Branch for 4.5 years (1998-2002)) and long term volunteer (1989-2002) during Silvia Fords time as Blue Mountains Branch Administrator.
Sometimes it’s very easy to just throw dirt, it’s easier still to find out the truth.
Regards,
I’m horrified to read the message from “Maxi” who appears to be connected to the SoCares rescue group. Now they are writing horrible untruths simply because I said on our Save Our Blue Mountains RSPCA Shelter F/b page that I was saddened to read in our local newspaper that the group had made a bid to take over our shelter instead of getting in contact with us and trying to help us. I am saddened because I wouldn’t have done what they did, I would have tried to help them to regain their shelter.
There is no truth whatsoever in what “Maxi” has written to you. I left the shelter on October 11 2002 & have never been back there. I did hear recently from an animal attendant who started there in 2005 that there was an outbreak of ringworm in the cattery and cat flu’ shortly after she began working there. I don’t think I can be blamed for something that happened 2 or 3 years after I had left. The manager who was there at that time was apparently replaced in 2007 and there have been no outbreaks of disease since.
I don’t have a ‘high horse’ or an ego. Very few people knew that I was responsible for getting the shelter built before this closure was threatened, I have not mentioned it to anyone for 12 years. I have never said “I’ve done it before & I can do it again” What rot.The only reason I started the online Petition on change.org & the F/b page was because nobody else was going to do a thing. They were just going to wait for the shelter to close, as they did when Coleman closed & sold our fundraising shops. Nobody from the shelter told me about the threatened closure, I read it in the Gazette.
As for the comment about euthanasia, well that is just a sick.& vicious thing to say. I’m glad I don’t know anybody who invents such horrible things.