Lost Dogs Home Pet Fest

On March 3rd the Lost Dogs Home Pet Fest invites pet lovers to celebrate the organsation’s 100th birthday

Obviously, I was all like, OMG you guys! and wanted to take the time to celebrate with them. Here are a few milestones of note from the team at the Lost Dogs Home;

The New ‘Lost Cats’ Home’

In 2010 Victorians opened their hearts and wallets to support the Lost Dogs Home capital campaign to expand their operations. Opened in January 2011, the $2.35million The Lost Cats’ Home was built on acquired factory space next door to the North Melbourne site.

This investment has taken their kill rate for unclaimed cats down from 90%+, to around 80%, so now only 8 out of ten cats die if left with the facility.

Successfully lobbying for BSL in Victoria

As one of the only animal welfare groups in the state of Victoria to come out in support of Breed Specific Laws after the Ayen Chol tragedy, the Lost Dogs Home Managing Director had worked for nearly a decade to get the laws expanded to include all dogs who, according to him, looked ‘dangerous’.

This resulted in the deaths of dogs like Bear and Kooda, who were two dogs whose looks meant they were seized and destroyed.

Developing the ‘Who’s for Cats’ program

Launched in 2007, at the Home the ‘Who’s for Cats’ program was lauded to be an innovative public awareness campaign. In execution however, it demonised free-roaming cats and the people who showed them compassion, and increased impounds several fold. By 2008, there had been a 40% increase in complaints calls about cats and by 2010 the Lost Dogs Home was taking in more cats than dogs.

Their fellow shelter, the Cat Protection Society, maintains kill rates of over 90% for the around 12,000 cats it takes in annually, demonstrating that any program which appeals to cat-haters and asks them to seize cats, was always going to result in increased rates of killing.

‘Oopsie’ killing pets with owners

Brindle had a family who wanted to collect him, but he ended up dead.

Bubba had an owner who wanted to collect him, but he ended up dead.

Building the country’s biggest pound

By taking on pound contracts from no fewer than 10 cities, The Lost Dogs Home’s North Melbourne site is the biggest pound in Australia. This means they are currently servicing over 1,127,000 people, 150,000 registered dogs and 109,000 registered cats. Over 90% of their intakes to the facility are via their own impoundment staff and vehicles.

Currently, there is no way for owner to search for their lost pets online. The organisation instead recommends you visit from say, the outskirts of Hume, to their facility and peer into each cage daily until your pet is found.

Killing dogs

At North Melbourne, every second dog who remains unclaimed, is killed. One in every two.

(click here for a flyer of both cat and dog stats)

Pet Fest an opportunity for pet lovers to have their say

As you can see, there is just so much to celebrate on the 3rd March. So don’t forget to get down there, join in and talk to people about just how much the Lost Dogs Home does for pets.