The Lost Dogs Home is circling the wagons to defend themselves from the public questioning of their high kill rates and multi-million dollar budget as presented in their annual report, deleting posts from Facebook and locking down their fan page. However I did receive the following response when I asked some questions:
“Hi Michelle, as a long term critic of mainstream animal welfare organisations you know as well as anyone know that we are always working on ways to improve animal welfare in Australia. You are also more than aware of the many proactive services the Home offers to increase the number of pets identified and our initiatives to adopt more unwanted pets into homes.”
I’d like to think rather than being a long term critic of ‘mainstream organisations’, I’m actually a long term critic of the unnecessary killing of pets. I’d also like to think I’ve been an avid supporter of rescue as a whole, but when an organisation simply refuses to reflect the community’s belief that shelters should offer ‘shelter’ to homeless animals, ignores the experience of more progressive organisations which have eliminated shelter killing, and squanders millions of dollars killing, rather than saving pets… then I feel being ‘critical’ is the only appropriate response.
Question to the LDH number 1.
Cat impounds at the Lost Dogs Home have increased only slightly in a decade (from 8,213 in 1999, to 10,995 in 2011); however your cat adoptions dropped this year to less than 1,000. Given intakes seem to be remaining steady, and with the enormous discrepancy between adoptions and intakes, can you please tell us what programs you have planned in the future to reduce the number of cats entering your organisation?
Answer from the LDH:
“We will have to agree to disagree on the solution to the cat overpopulation crisis. That being said we are dedicated to raising awareness for what it means to be a responsible owner and to reducing the number of unwanted, undesexed and feral cats. You can find lots of information about our new cat facility, satellite kitten adoption programs and how well it’s working on our website.”
I think it is fantastic that the Lost Dogs Home is promoting “responsible pet ownership” – I really do. But when did this become an acceptable substitute for saving the lives of those pets who are already born, in their care and who are needing protection?
This organisation killed nearly 9,000 of the 11,000 cats they impounded for the year. Just think for one moment, how many cats that is. Look at the cat at the start of this article and then try and imagine thousands more like him. Killed by an organisation who claims to be a champion for cat welfare.
“Raising awareness” didn’t help these cats. Sure, maybe one day in the future “raising awareness” will lead to less cats somehow… whatever. But how does running an awareness campaign which might work tomorrow, make it OK for an animal welfare organisation, to seek out and kill today the very same animals it claims to be protecting? To each year accept several million dollars worth of donations from pet lovers to save the lives of cats… while simultaneously accepting several million dollars worth of local council contracts to trap and kill them?
We absolutely do have to “agree to disagree” on the solution to cat overpopulation in shelters – namely that I do not believe in shelters artificially inflating numbers by running cat trapping & killing programs on behalf of local councils is a solution. I do not believe killing cats en-mass is a solution. I do not believe that continuing to ignore the experience of shelters who have reduced and even eliminated cats being killed offering their communities bulk, targeting, free and discount desexing is a solution. I do not believe using the donations of pet lovers to kill cats is a solution. I do not believe an ‘awareness campaign’, rather than active and proven programs to reduce cat impounds is a solution.
And the truth is, neither do the Lost Dogs Home. They have no five year plan to eliminate the killing of cats in their shelter. They have no ten year plan to eliminate the killing of cats in their shelter. They plan to kill cats every year for the forseeable future. Because their leadership believes there is no other way. How’s that plan working out as a ‘solution to cat overpopulation’ so far?
Question to the LDH number 2.
This year you adopted 2,168 dogs, but killed 2,879. Is it your belief that more than half of unclaimed dogs are truly unsavable?
Answer from the LDH:
“The Lost Dogs’ Home operates on a totally open-door policy. We do not turn any pets away and accept everything. We have a committed team who do everything we can to reunite lost pets with their owners and rehouse as many abandoned dogs and cats as possible.”
So there you have it folks – the reason the Home kills more than half of unclaimed dogs is because the organisation takes them in. If the dogs weren’t taken in, the Home wouldn’t kill them – simple! Meanwhile, there is no hope of less killing whatsoever, as they are doing “everything” they can.
The killing certainly has nothing to do with the fact scared and lost pets aren’t having their pictures posted online to make it easier for owners to find them. It certainly isn’t that the Home refuses to allow anymore than with what we know about shelter dynamics and while other much less fortunate pounds and shelters save nearly every pet is revolting and unjustifiable.
Shelters across the country are saving lives by working with the community. Shelters across the world have eliminated shelter killing in its entirety. Continuing to peddle the notion of ‘doing the public’s dirty work’ while squandering the community’s resources should no longer be accepted.
Question to the LDH number 3.
Do you believe the Home slogan; “100% Commitment to Re-Homing Savable Pets” is accurate and not misleading to the public, given that your organisation killed 11,872 pets in a single year?
Answer from the LDH:
Yes, we are most definitely 100% commitment to rehoming saveable pets.
Well I’m totes reassured; how about you?
In answer to your question –
“Well I’m totes reassured; how about you?”
my answer is a resounding NO!
Probably more because LDH are so sensitive to falling out of political favour with DPI or a number of Victorian state Ministers and super sensitive to any “scandal” like deceptive and misleading statements which could result from a simple complaint to Consumer Affairs Victoria or ASIC, they have recently changed their website.
What was “100% commitment to re-homing savable pets” (or similar) is now “compassion and care since 1910?.
LDH have always been experts at colour and movement ‘spin’. It has never mattered whether their ‘spin’ was misleading as long as they couldn’t be sued for false comments. While they fail dismally on saving lives, they excel in ‘marketing’. They are also skilled in knowing the ‘kill’ market, the wobbly pounds, the ones who are driven by the political claims on the $ in struggling communities where local government has always placed ‘pounds’ at the bottom on the list. They would rather outsource and I have no doubt LDH have a very slick presentation they roll out when the opportunity arises as we have all recently seen with Brisbane city council.
What LDH haven’t factored in however is that the public are not stupid, they are more savvy to what others are doing including the strong army of community rescue groups and an increasing number of progressive shelters. People can now compare and ask the logical questions. Today’s consumer be it car, TV or family pet like to make informed choices. LDH are outnumbered by smart consumers, donators and strong competition in the world of “compassion and care”.
No Kill is here to stay and they are going to look like the well feathered albatross.
I agree with the LDH statement “we are all working we are always working on ways to improve animal welfare in Australia.” I don’t agree that the “we” includes LDH. They still ridicule No Kill and think they are the only shelter or group that has it right. Their stats tell a different story. The stats which represent dead companion animals – let us not forget that even though the numbers are truly hard to take in. I also agree that they are working very hard on increasing “the number of pets identified ….”. Why wouldn’t they – their microchip services is money for jam.
Then we come to the “our initiatives to adopt more unwanted pets into homes.” They still view pets as “unwanted”. The biggest issues with LDH is the cultural issues and these cultural issues stem from G Smith and S Conroy supported by lazy out of touch Directors who don’t live in today’s world or undertake the responsibilities of Directors as they should, apart from the financial making money bit.
I would like to know how many “pets” even make it to the temp testers. I would like to know the % of “pets” that require full vet work or extra vet work who actually make it to the adoption queue. I would like to know how many “extra” cats have been saved because of the mega spend of cat condos. Call me a cynic, but I saw this as a ploy to gain media cover (they did), praise and accolades (they have) and additional donations (next year’s Annual Report will tell us this).
While they are raking in a fortune of easy money in killing, they will continue to take in with open arms every lost or abandoned pet that is unfortunate enough to find its way into their facility.
My 2012 commitment is that I am donating some of my time is to thinking very strategically about the best way to highlight how out of touch and out of date LDH actually is. Funny thing about us cyber bullies, mainstream animal welfare people – we are passionate; we do this not because we are paid to do it, but simply because we care. We all have amazing levels of endurance – like a little army of those every ready bunnies with the batteries that never run out!
Lawyers for companion animals have it on the mark. Thank god we have intelligent passionate people such as yourselves to help,save our beautiful companions from this heartless slaughter motivated by greed and apathy. Bless you all
Maybe they should take a leaf out of Cat Haven here in WA have had an enormous sucessful kitten campaign over Christmas and are now taking in kittens from other rescue groups to fill the demand. They have expanded their desexing and microchipping facilities and are now working 7 days a week to keep up with the demand. So how pathetic do LDH look. People are all watching these groups and the public is now aware of how useless they are and how dangerous they are for our animals.
Keep up the good work Shel and don’t take lame excuses and keep publicising all those “professional” kill centres hidden under a cloak of false names like “Lost dogs home” that make it their business to kill animals instead of exerting themselves out of their 40 years comfort zone of kill as a solution.
Maybe we should suggest if this is the best they can do they hire in the experts that know just how it can and is being done by other shelters.
Does anybody have access to a breakdown of their annual reports and financial reports? It would be interesting to find out where the money is going. Also who is responsible for determining whether an animal is “Saveable” or not?
When I went there years ago the staff were awful (with the exception of one lovely lady) and seemed to NOT want me to adopt one of their dogs. I wondered why they would be so discouraging to someone wanting to give one of their dogs a home, now its clear.
I posted your last article on DHL as well as their own Stats, they where deleted within hours and I am now banned from any further comments..Funny that! Their supporters have called me and others, cyber bullies who are out to wage war against LDH and that we are deliberatly Slandering this wonderful organisation. Also according to some, we will turn people away from adopting from LDH and the bllod of innocent animals will be on our hands. Funny that!
I also commented saying that Our Local Pound receives no Government Funding, the RSPCA left and gives no money to the area dispite the statment on their website which clearly stats they support our regional area(BS) and relies mainly on Public Donations and Rescue Groups, yet we have a much higher ‘save’ Rate, then the LDH who recieve 12million a year. That was also quickly deleted. Their Guidlines state, that they will not remove comments, even if they are negative, BS, Any comment, that is not praising them is deleted within hours.
Samantha while correct that no pound receives “funding”, we need to remember that they are all funded by tax payers. It is each council who then allocate what they choose to allocate (budget wise) on how that pound is managed, quality of facilities, staff etc. Sadly, the vast majority of the pounds come last on the list of “spend” and they will only upgrade facilities when they must following a DPI audit or absolutely having to change something to comply with the CoP. This is much more obvious in rural pounds where the pound is normally situated in or close to the “tip” and where the local dog catcher is also responsible for noise complaints, water activities and safety, general local laws including wandering stock on roads and critically fire inspections and safety. Lost and stray animals rate very low on the position descriptions.