One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my time off (apart from the sweet, sweet smell of baby neck!) is getting to watch the snowballing of compassion, as pet lovers and animal welfare advocates join forces like never before. Where the voices speaking up for the rights of shelter pets were once only a few ‘crazy’ fringe pioneers, now the myths and mantras which justified killing for convenience are being rejected by the community at large.
Sides are being drawn; those who seek to continue to kill, hiding behind apologetic slogans of ‘overpopulation’ and continuing to browbeat an ‘irresponsible public’. And those who seek to embrace the resources of the community’s pet lovers, championing the core belief that a new home is a better outcome for a pet, than death in a shelter. The community is speaking up for animals, fighting to overcome the inertia of many pounds in implementing proactive redemption, rehabilitation and rehoming programs. Thanks to this movement, the future is looking bright for Australian pets.
The RSPCA ACT have released their annual statistics, saving an inspiring 94% of dogs and 65% of cats. Their secret? Attitude!
“Despite the economic down turn and an increase in demand across all services, we just continue to improve. I am incredibly proud of our team.” ~ Michael Linke
When Geelong Animal Welfare Society (GAWS) was approached by its community to work to reduce their high kill rates, their response was that the animals were dying because they were simply ‘not adoptable’.
“The animals we put down are not rehomeable,” Dr Walter said. “We are not like a pet shop, some of these dogs will have attacked people.
… these cats cannot be re-homed, they will rip your arm off.”
This may have seemed plausible until you consider the organisation killed 852 dogs and rehomed just 487 (they also ‘misplaced’ 217 dogs), and killed 2,426 cats, rehoming just 546.
The organisation is accused by protesters of refusing to implement proactive programs promoting adoption, refusing to working with community rescue groups, refusing to list pets online and acting in a hostile fashion to potential adopters. The community’s animal management problems are exasperated by the organisations support of draconian laws, which predictably drove up impounds.
While GAWS management are resentful of such attention – they have been killing without consequence for decades and wish desperately that their community would just butt out – the saga continues with the latest annual report revealing the organisation declared $2.3 million in financial assets in 2010.
GAW’s community is getting wise that they are not to blame for the organisation’s poor performance in saving lives and that the high kill rates are out of sync with how they want homeless animals to be treated. In short, the community are fighting for the animals, while the animal ‘welfare’ group who should be, fights for the right to keep killing. An abhorrent contradiction.
Community members who would like to join the push for an improvement of services at GAWS can join the Geelong Animal Care Facebook group.
With their name rapidly become synonymous with high kill rates, The Lost Dogs Home found itself the focus of locale media;
Pound kill rate sparks concern – THE AGE
A Lost Dogs Home plan to take over the running of more council pounds has alarmed animal welfare groups, who say the strategy will lead to more dogs and cats being killed.
The home has won three council contracts from rival RSPCA Victoria and has plans to take over more pounds as well as expand interstate.
The home has won contracts with Casey, Hobsons Bay and Echuca councils by tender from the RSPCA over the past two years and now runs 17 council pounds in Victoria.
But animal welfare groups have criticised the home’s growth strategy because of its high kill rate of impounded animals.
….
City of Casey spokesman Chris Ryan said tenders were called for all contracts valued at more than $150,000. The Lost Dogs Home was awarded the council’s pound contract, held by the RSPCA for the past 15 years, in December and will begin services on June 1.
Showing just how out of step they are with modern sheltering initiatives, the group blames both the community and the animals themselves for the fact so many pets fail to survive impoundment;
(Lost Dogs’ Home managing director Graeme Smith) ”We’re getting five to six owners per week refusing to come in and collect (their pets). It’s a syndrome that needs some addressing.”
Smith says the high number of dogs deemed not suitable for a new home reflects the area the shelter covers where there are more dangerous and restricted breeds of dogs.
”We have a council in the City of Melbourne that is hot to trot in making sure that we do the right thing and doing the right thing is not rehousing a dog that is going to go out and kill a neighbour’s dog or savage a kiddy,” says Smith. ”I’ve been someone who has been very strong on that.”
It’s worth remembering that this organisation adopted 3,101 pets and killed 13,594 and continues to fail to put animal welfare first, expanding their operations at the expense of animals and failing to reunite pets with owners.
Pounds may not be responsible for the pet ending up in care, but what happens next is completely in their hands. With the LDH refusing to modernise or work with local breed clubs, foster carers & rescue groups to maximise life saving, the community has the right to & should be demanding better. Killing pets while blocking these community relationships is no longer tolerable.
With the blessing of major shelters working to maintain control of valuable animal control contracts, the Department of Primary Industries proposed a highly restrictive new Code of Practice to become the blueprint for rescue in the state.
However, in a fantastic win for pets, the government listened to community feedback (over 500 submissions and more than 2,500 signatures in the PetRescue recommendation) and made significant changes to the original proposal. These changes allow shelters to work freely with foster carers and removed restrictions which forced shelters to kill pets after arbitrary time limits.
Not only does the new Code of Practice acknowledge the vital and significant contribution community rescue and foster care groups make in the modern animal sheltering model, it obligates high kill shelters to fully implement comprehensive foster care programs to save all healthy and treatable pets. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed in standing up for homeless pets and the amazing rescuers working to save them!
Rather than the usual suspects busting out tired old mantras of an ‘uncaring and irresponsible public’, new animal welfare players are finally being given the chance to spread the No Kill message, showing the community how to build a better future for pets. Vix from PetRescue was given the opportunity to discuss companion animal management on the 7PM Project recently. She used the opportunity to discuss modern sheltering practices and the innovative programs which are ensuring pound and shelter pets get a second chance at happiness.
Congratulations to Vix for such a groundbreaking interview.
Continuing the theme of the new generation of inspired and inspiring animal welfare advocates leading the way in animal sheltering practices, the rock star line up for this year’s NDN has been announced.
Some of the international guests include:
– Richard Avanzino (President Maddie’s Fund USA)
Read more about Richard
– Robyn Kippenberger (CEO RNZSPCA NZ)
Read more about Robyn
– Bob Kerridge (Executive Director SPCA Auckland & National President, RNZSPCA)
Read more about Bob
– Mitch Schneider (Director Washoe County Animal Management Services USA)
Read more about Mitch
& Dr Jeff Young (DVM Planned Pethood Plus USA)
Read more about Jeff
And a host of amazing local speakers including;
– Michael Linke (CEO, RSPCA ACT)
Presenting; Change for the better
– Corinne Alberthsen & Jacqui Rand (University of Qld)
Presenting: What can 191,000 cats tell us about saving lives?
– Dr Kate Hurley (Director Shelter Medicine Program UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine)
Presenting: Feline Health in Shelters and Pounds Workshop
– Kate Mornement (Monash University)
Presenting: Behavioural Assessment Research
and Mike Bailey (Good for Dogs), Saskia & Meaghan Adams (Fundraising extraordinaires!), Tim Rickman & John Bishop (Pedigree Adoption Drive/PetRescue), Christine Yurovich (Cat Alliance of Australia) and Cathy Craw & Geoff Clarke (Tasmanian Canine Defence League).
For more information and to reserve your seat, visit: The National Desexing Network Conference page
