The final element of the No Kill equation is the most important of all, without which all other elements are thwarted—a hard working, compassionate animal control or shelter director not content to regurgitate tired clichés or hide behind the myth of “too many animals, not enough homes.†Unfortunately, this one is also often times the hardest one to demand and find.
The No Kill Advocacy Center
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So what’s the secret to saving the lives of homeless pets? Simply, you just put in the hard yards and do it. Even if that means a serious spring clean in order to keep your animals healthy. From the RSPCA ACT’s website;
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RSPCA ACT wishes to advise our customers and supporters that our cattery will be closed on Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th February for summer maintenance and cleaning.
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CEO Michael Linke, proud of his reputation as one of Australia’s most effective animals rescuers tells Saving Pets why he made the decision to temporarily close his shelter;
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Since December 2008 we have had more than 700 cats through our cattery, many of them with serious and contagious illness. This combined with extreme temperatures put infrastructural pressure on our facilities and these facilities become fatigued and harbour disease. Rather than maintaining our normal cleaning regime we decided to take a more proactive and broad brush approach.
We moved all of our cats to a temporary facility, a large bird aviary in fact, and completely cleaned the cattery with a combination of bleach and specific disinfectants. With no cats in the cattery we were able to be very aggressive in the use of the disinfectants as well as remove shelving and move cages around to ensure complete coverage. We also undertook some running repairs to some cages and shelving.
All in all in was a very successful exercise, the cats were all moved back in within 36 hours and we now have a cattery free of disease and our ongoing commitment to animal welfare again shines through.
With regard to cat homing, we have homed 325 cats in the last eight weeks – we continue to find homes for all of our healthy domestic cats.
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Here’s a shelter that values the lives of its animals and who makes keeping them healthy while in care a top priority. Add to that it’s 92% rehoming rate for dogs and you have one inpirational organisation.
We are a very progressive, modern animal care centre that believes every companion animal deserves a chance at finding that ‘forever’ home.
At RSPCA ACT every healthy companion animal stays with us for as long as it takes to find a home. There are no time limits and no animal is ever put to sleep because they have been with us too long or we have no space.
RSPCA ACT website
Listen to how they do it here (mp3)
great job Shel. Keep up the good work