July 25, 2008Comments are closed.attitude, No Kill
Showing exactly how No Kill can work in Australia is the Animal Welfare League in QLD (AWL). Caring for 10,000 stray and abandoned companion animals on the Gold Coast and surrounding areas each year and with the lofty goal of “the Gold Coast City becoming the first city in Australia to achieve zero euthanasia of healthy and treatable cats and dogs” the AWL calls on its community to help save pets.
Their Golden Oldies Program finds loving homes for animals 8 years old and over. Their Foster Care Program and Volunteer Program empower the community to save animals. And their Enrichment Program works to keep dogs in the shelter adoptable and includes a twice weekly trip to the beach!
They are lobbying for compulsory desexing before sale and offer discount desexing to their community. They run internships in customer service for their volunteers and open their new rehoming centres seven days a week.
Whew! I hear you say. So they’re working hard in the community, but does that really translate into less euthanasia?
We save just about all dogs that come to us, unless they are very sick or aggressive. At times it is really tough to achieve this. People are driving from much further away to surrender their animals to us, knowing that we are leading the way in working towards zero euthanasia.
We take in all strayed and surrendered dogs from the Gold Coast, as well as many from Ipswich and Beaudesert Pounds, as there is no refuge in either of these places. Consequently our adoption pens are overflowing, as well as our foster homes.
www.awlqld.com.au
In just the last month, this organisation has rehomed 448 pets; 221 dogs and 227 cats.
It’s not hard to see where this is going. No Kill communities can work and an enlightened society will demand nothing less. The Old Guard keep throwing up their hands and saying “we must kill” to explain their lack of inspired action and cover their ineptitude, but accountability is becoming the achilles heel of these ineffective groups and will ultimately be their end. Meanwhile rescues like the AWL who refuse to support a culture of killing healthy, adoptable pets will continue to thrive.
“The majority of the community value companion animals… once they know those animals are being killed, they definitely do not agree with it. Surveys we’ve done have demonstrated that very clearly.”
Joy Verrinder AWL QLD
