There’s an interesting trend amongst animal groups. Those who kill a high number of pets tend to keep their resources as closely guarded collateral (shelter centric). While those who have pledged to make the preservation of life their highest priority, open their doors and share their resources with both the public and other groups (community centric).
This doesn’t mean these ‘open’ groups are niave, or bad business people – in fact far from it. There is growing evidence that in a pet-loving nation like Australia, there is abundant resources for animal welfare groups should they open their organisations and embrace their public.
Wanna know how much? A single media piece this week about the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home’s pledge to save lives;
One of Sydney’s biggest animal shelters is hoping to stop putting down unwanted pets – a plan that could save the lives of thousands of animals.
Sydney Dogs and Cats Home in Carlton wants to find adoptive homes for all “healthy and treatable dogs”, which account for about 90 per cent of impounded animals. In many cases, dogs are unnecessarily destroyed after falling victim to broken homes or poor gift choices.
Chief executive and veterinarian Christine Cole said the recent “no-kill” movement in the US had put pressure on Australian pounds to create similar programs.
Was picked up in no less than 7 newspapers a month out from xmas;
The Bellingen Courier Sun
The Whyalla News
The Bay Post/Moruya Examiner
The Fairfield City Champion
The Flinders News
The Camden Advertiser
And all the way over to the small town of Busselton WA (my home town!) in The Busselton Dunsborough Mail
A pro-life policy reflects the progressive values of Australian pet lovers. It captures peoples hearts and minds to know that you have made a commitment to save lives – not just the highly adoptable and the cute – but the lives of all pets who are able to be saved.
The Sydney Dogs and Cats Home has 12 council contracts and takes in about 4,500 animals per year. To make their new life saving pledge a reality, they have joined forces with another powerhouse of the Australian pro-life movement, the AWL QLD, to introduce the ‘Getting to Zero’ program;
The Animal Welfare League of Queensland has achieved an Australian first – avoiding having to euthanise a single healthy dog or cat on the Gold Coast for more than 12 months.
So how did they do it?
AWL Strategic Development Officer Joy Verrinder says the achievement is a result of the AWL’s ‘Getting to Zero’ program which combines many different projects, all playing their part.
“It’s a very complex process to reduce euthanasia rates in any city. It isn’t just any one thing, it’s a combination of things,” she says.
“First of all it involves a big focus on the prevention of stray and abandoned animals.”
These preventative measures involve offering discounted micro chipping and desexing for pet owners.
“Desexing helps prevent that oversupply of animals being born with no homes to go to, so that’s a really important program.”
But inevitably, despite even the best preventative measures, there will always be unwanted animals.
This is where the AWL’s re-homing program comes into play.
“We have a really high re-homing rate – that’s because we do a lot of promotion of our animals, we make sure we have beautiful photos of them on our website and we do lots of advertising. And the general public have been fantastic in coming forward to adopt from us so that helps an awful lot as well.”
The success is three-fold;
– By embracing your community you release your ‘fear of the public’.
– From an up-front communications strategy, you release your ‘fear of activists’.
– And from a driven, compassionate and big picture approach, you release your ‘fear of fellow rescue orgs’.
And you enter the world of ‘community animal sheltering’.
The new animal welfare ‘thought leaders’ are those who lead by example, act with integrity and most of all, embrace a life saving philosophy.
The most successful groups are those who have reclaimed their roots as animal advocates and champion the rights of animal to receive safety and care.
While the most successful communities are those who are enlightened, activated and demanding nothing less than the best, from their animal welfare leaders.
Killing is finally being taken off the table as an acceptable method of population control.
The future is looking bright for Australian pets.
