Campbelltown spends $1 million dollars on killing

Campbelltown Pound dog (Image: The Daily Telegraph)

The City of Campbelltown located less that an hour out of the Sydney CBD, has a population of around 150,000 people, and a council run animal shelter which takes in just shy of 4,000 pets a year.

Back in 2009/10, thanks to some negative publicity from surrounding councils over its appalling kill rates, the conditions at the pound attracted the attention of the local community. The pound killed a staggering 2,366 of their 2,593 unclaimed pets – meaning just 227 unclaimed pets left the facility alive, or less than 1 in 10.

A citizen’s action group (Pound CC – on Facebook) was formed and quickly grew from a few dozen concerned community members to several thousand pet lovers lobbying for change at the pound. They challenged the regime over the fact most of the most animals at the facility were being killed, rather than adopted. They also questioned the ethics of the pound releasing undesexed animals back into the community. The pound opening hours had been only a fraction of the hours needed to maximise adoptions, and pets were not being formally evaluated for adoptability. There was no volunteer program, and pets had been being over-sprayed daily when staff cleaned, meaning even in winter pets were being left wet and cold. The group asked for pets to be given bedding and jackets.

The Campbelltown pound facilities were described as ‘horrendously sub-standard’, with cats and kittens being placed together in a single cattery, and puppies being housed next to isolation kennels for sick dogs. Disease spread was high due to the facilities age, poor design and insufficient drainage.

Under pressure from the community, Council made some positive changes to daily operations, and began the process of tendering the running of the pound to an external group. Two groups came forward as contenders for the pound contract (and with both organisations running extremely efficient operations) – Gosford Animal Care and Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.

Advocates hoped Campbelltown Council was finally going to give the pets of the city the care they deserved.

But sadly, it was not to be.

Both organisations who tendered have now been rejected by the City for being ‘too expensive’;

Foundation member Sue Riley is furious after councillors rejected two tenders for the management of the pound in Rose St at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Ms Riley said after more than three years fighting for the region’s most needy animals, the facility continued to be “run on a smell of an oily rag or a shoestring”.

“We are extremely concerned with how the facility is operating,” Ms Riley said.

“Council has made some positive changes and when a decision was made for the facility to be tendered out we were delighted and have been eagerly awaiting the result of the tendering process.”
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“There was hope the new management would be in by the beginning of the financial year but council is now looking at other alternatives,” Ms Riley said.

“We are devastated with the outcome because we were sure council was going to follow through with the tender process. We are gutted for the animals.

With the help of rescue groups, the kill rate dropped to a little over half the pets* that walk through the doors ending up in the incinerator. Sadly, despite the community’s best efforts to drive for change, killing is still the primary tool for managing animals at the pound.

So while the animals continue to suffer, council now dither over cost.

How much does the community pay for the existing service? According to the Campbelltown Council 2014/15 Operational Budget, nearly $1 million dollars.

Has anyone noticed that there’s always enough money to kill?

If the nearly $1 million dollars per year of tax payers money is not being being on the care and placement of the City’s impounded pets, and it’s not being spent on saving lives, and it’s not being spent on improving the facilities at the pound – just where is this money going?

And would this enormous sum of money, be better spent being invested into ANYTHING other than what they’ve being doing every year to date?

If you’re a tax payer in Campbelltown, or pet lover in NSW, it’s up to you to start demanding a better for the pets in your community. Letting the conditions at the pound remain in this state for another three years is completely unacceptable.

Please join the Pound CC Facebook group and offer your support.

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See also: Campbelltown – is this Australia’s worst council pound?

Campbelltown update – it’s still YOUR fault we kill

Microchipped, surrendered, loved – not enough to save Tyson from the pound

Angel, Vanilla, Milly & Freddie – cute little kittens who didn’t stand a chance

Senior labrador killed, despite having rescue hold

*2011/12 figures available here