Orange animal management hits out at their community as “appalling”

Pet owners in orange are more ‘irresponsible’ than most says animal management in the city:

More cats and dogs are being impounded or abandoned in Orange than most other towns and cities, with over a third of all animals going into our RSPCA shelter never making it out alive.

“There’s no doubt the city has a significant problem,” RSPCA NSW animal wellbeing executive manager Susan Hill said yesterday.

…….
“I think it’s appalling and a very sad reflection on pet ownership in Orange,” said councillor Neil Jones, a member of a newly formed group hoping to tackle the problem.

There appears to be a direct correlation between the failure to register and microchip animals and rates of impoundment or abandonment.

Sixty per cent of the 979 dogs housed at the shelter in the seven- month period were not micro-chipped while 80 per cent were not desexed.

Just 35 of the 475 cats at the shelter were desexed.

The figures demonstrate residents continue to ignore the Companion Animals Act.

It dictates the mandatory registration and microchipping of cats and dogs.(ref)

It’s a weird phenomenon that when animal departments see a trend (an overwhelming number of undesexed, unchipped pets winding up in rescue), they often see it as a chance to harangue their community (“we need harsher penalties”), rather than an opportunity to help them.

This whole article could have been a chance to let people know about the services Orange offers the pet owners of their community;
– Their discount desexing programs for low income earners
– Their free desexing offers for community cats
– Their dog training classes and the opportunities for socialisation
– The benefits of microchipping and the next free microchipping event they are hosting
– The opening of a new off-leash area
– The upcoming door knock in ‘at risk’ areas to advise householders of their pet ownership obligations and to offer support and assistance to disadvantaged owners
– The benefits of pet adoption and their next adoption event
… etc, etc.

But no, they chose to go with punishment:

“I believe we need to start getting tough in relation to enforcement,” Cr Jones said.

“However, whether penalties would be a deterrent to people who simply can’t afford to pay fines is another issue.”

Fines don’t help people, in fact they can take resources away from doing something constructive.

Telling your community that you think they’re crap doesn’t show them how to become better pet owners.

When there are trends in the community, that’s a really good thing as it allows us to focus out energies on targeting these issues.

There are solutions. The first step finding them is to stop criticising the people we should be supporting.