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 <1% of dogs to be released to rescue groups. It certainly isn't that the Home's "temperament testers" fail more than 50% of the unclaimed dogs and they wind up at the kill room. And it certainly isn't that the Home holds more than 20 council contracts, growing every year, ensuring that their facilities are often at capacity, and overcapacity during holidays and new years.

The idea that more than half of all unclaimed dogs processed by this organisation - be they stray or surrender - have a poor prognosis for rehoming or rehabilitation is inconceivable. The fact the Home defend this level of killing in 2011, 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?

Image: The Lost Dogs Home – The Herald Sun

How many pets would you expect to see saved in a year with a budget of over $12 million dollars?

$12 million dollars is a veritable fortune in animal welfare circles. From the tiniest rescue group working on a shoestring, through to the grandest private shelter; $12 million dollars should be able to save the lives of tens of thousands of pets, with some left over to put towards impoundment prevention and relationship building with the community. So news that the The Lost Dogs Home have released their annual report, showing that they this year, like previous years, recorded “revenue from continuing operations” of $12,375,271, should be a cause for celebration from pet lovers and homeless animals.

But unfortunately despite its enormous resources, the Lost Dogs Home continues to be a disaster for pets.

This week the Home is imploring the community to keep their ‘best friend safe’ over the holiday period, listing five things pet owners can do to ensure their pets aren’t spooked and lost during new years eve celebrations, and that…

… the best hope for lost, frightened animals is to be picked up by The Lost Dogs’ Home’s after-hours ambulances or a local council’s animal control officer… Sadly there is no guarantee that every pet can be reached in time, before the worst happens.

The ‘worst’ is obviously the pet being injured or killed on the street. But what are the ‘best’ outcomes for pets once they enter the Lost Dogs Home’s ‘care’?

The report shows over the 2010/11 year the outcomes for pets were as follows;

3,525 – adopted
7,407 – returned to owner
11,872 – killed (2,879 dogs, 8,993 cats)

This means for every single one of the pets the organisation processes, they make a whopping $536, regardless of the outcome for the pet. By these calculations, they make a staggering $6.3 million dollars for pets who are simply killed and their bodies incinerated.

But how can this be happening?

Local councils pay this organisation for pets collected during holiday celebrations. ‘Pet ambulances’ aren’t an altruistic effort to protect pets, but a money generating investment. Rather than pets being returned to owners as a public service, these ‘ambulances’ are simply glorified ranger vans impounding on behalf of councils, taking pets to the North Melbourne pound. It’s also worth noting they aren’t paid to per-pet returned to owner, but can hold and kill the pet and still be paid for their services.

Cats fare even worse than dogs in this purely profit-driven arrangement. Each year, local councils pay the Lost Dogs Home to actively trap unowned cats and bring them to the Home. Despite being perpetually at capacity with lost pet cats and friendly rehomable strays, the organisation chooses to take on the extra role of ‘cat slaughterhouse’, offering untame cats no option other than death. Untame cats, or those acting feral cat be killed immediately. Each cat-trapping council tender earns the organisation a yearly salary and keeps their intake numbers high, but the organisation does little to actually combat cat-overpopulation, offering just 100 discount desexing surgeries per year under the ‘Who’s for Cats’ program – while they kill close to 10,000 cats annually.

Along with council income, they also receive around $6 million dollars in bequests and donations annually, ($7.5m in donations and legacies this year). Pet lovers hoping their contributions will see pets saved, ironically supporting one of the largest killer of companion animals in the country.

With all this money being generated from lost and homeless pets, what incentive does the Lost Dogs Home have to reduce intakes and killing? None. Even as the solutions to shelter killing have been available to the animal sheltering community since the 80’s and in the popular media since 2009 they still continue to choose to squander the enormous fortune given to them by the pet loving community every year… and kill rather than save the lives of pets.
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What can I do?

This section has been added to address the large public outcry & requests for people asking “what can I do?”

To lend the words of Lisa, an awesome animal advocate:
The rewards for killing are obscene. That this is accepted without screaming from the rooftops is also distressing, however most in the public domain have no idea. Yes people can stop making financial contributions to LDH but this will have minimal impact. In addition to the bequests, the bulk of their revenue comes from the very lucrative pound contracts. Losing these is what will hurt. Being front page news for their kill rates will hurt. Being held to account by those who support them will hurt. Complaining on facebook may relieve people’s frustration but it makes no difference to the animals. Invest your time wisely and write to all the councils who provide “kill” work to LDH and demand they get with the times and the No Kill movement. Contact the media and demand LDH becomes front page news. If you really want change, you need to work for it and demand change.

If you are in one of the following municipalities, then it is up to you as a ratepayer to demand change. If you are an animal lover it is up to you to let the media know this is important.

The Lost Dogs Home provide pound services for 10 councils (Melbourne, Moreland, Moonee Valley, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Wyndham, Hobson’s Bay, Darebin, Hume and Port Phillip).

They provide animal management services for the City of Greater Bendigo. The Home owns a property at Cranbourne west to service the Cities of Bayside, Casey, Cardinia, Frankston, Greater Dandenong and Kingston.

They are a leading organisation in providing animal management and pound services for councils. The Home hold more than 20 council contracts. (ref)

This morning, across the nation, council pounds are killing the dogs and cats in their care.

Not because they’re sick.

Not because they have behavioural problems.

Not because the community doesn’t want to adopt them.

But because it’s Christmas.

Pounds who close from Sunday 25th December through to Tuesday 3rd January do not want to have to pay holiday rates for staff to manage the pound. So they empty their establishments. They kill the healthy, the adoptable, the young and the old. At a time when literally thousands of people are opening their hearts and homes to a new pet, they close their doors to adopters.

These are pounds who throughout the year, make little to no effort to rehome pets. These are pounds who keep pets in run down, noisy, unhealthy kennels which scare off potential families.These are pounds who refuse to allow access by volunteers to help care for the animals. These are pounds who fail to promote lost or available pets online. These are pounds who burn out overworked rescuers by threatening to kill pets unless they’re collected under impossible deadlines. These are pounds who shoot the pets in their ‘care’ with a shotgun.

One by one. People’s lost companion animals, held the required 72hr hours, are disposed of like garbage. Their furry bodies dumped in pits in landfill.

These pounds are using the community’s tax dollars to run pet slaughterhouses.

Is this your local council pound?

Animal lovers must demand to know; what is your pound doing this Christmas?

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‘Pet City’ is open every day 7-days-a-week except for xmas day (9am – 5pm), and on the public holidays through the xmas/new year season (10am – 4pm) to allow people looking to get a pet to visit while they’re home off work and spending time with their families.

By contrast the major animal shelter in WA has announced… “Over the #Christmas break we will be closed from 24th-27th Dec & will re-open on 28th Dec.”

We know this is the most popular time for people to bring a new pet into their families, and we implore people not to go to pet shops at this time of year. We also know that with firework spooks, lost pets, surrenders and kitten season, the xmas/new year ‘rush’ period is by far the busiest time for shelters and pounds generally.

With that in mind, why aren’t more shelters running high-excitement-pound-emptying-promotions in the lead up to this weekend? If the Sydney fish market can promote its 24hr-fish-buying-marathon on major media, why don’t we see pounds and shelters throwing open their doors, extending their trading hours and BEGGING people to offer homes for the holidays, to the pets they would otherwise kill?

Below is the script from the presentation I gave at the WA Cat Welfare Symposium last month. :)

The awesomeness of cats

Hi and thanks so much for the opportunity to present here today! I’m Shel and I’m the Top Dog at PetRescue. PetRescue is a not-for-profit organisation that supports more than 1,000 Australian pounds, shelters and rescue groups. We provide programs and services which help improve animal adoption awareness, increase adoption rates and make it easy for potential adopters to find and save a rescue pet. We’re best known for our website, PetRescue.com.au which is the largest online, searchable. directory of rescue pets in Australia. Access is free to all animal welfare organisations looking to promote their pets.

And this year, we saw the adoption of PetRescues’ 100,000th pet. A cat named Banks from NSW.

BANKS in his new home – cared for by the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home

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Do we love cats?

There is a perception in Australia, that cats aren’t liked. The truth is, while there are a few vocal cat haters out there, the majority of people feel a huge amount of compassion for cats in the community.

- IBIS World industry figures from 2009, show Australian’s spend $1.4 BILLION dollars on cat care annually.

- In WA alone, we spend $1.34 MILLION dollars each year caring for our feline companions.

- According to the latest Australian figures, 91% of pet owners report feeling ‘very close’ to their pet, reinforcing that pets are an integral member of the family.

- While 50% of Australian owners will get their cat a Christmas present this year.

Rather than convince people to like cats, it’s THESE people who already identify as cat lovers who are our audience.

And there are a lot of cat lovers out there.

According to the Australian Companion Animal Council, there are around 230,000 owned cats living in WA. That’s one owned cat for every 10 people.

That 1 in 10, can be engaged to help our mission by: replacing their cats when they pass away (adoptions), sharing their experiences to the benefits of cat ownership (social proof), supporting our organisations (volunteerism, donations) and helping to protect cats in the community (advocacy).

Today my presentation is on the awesomeness of cats and how we can improve outcomes for homeless animals, based on two pretty simply opportunities.

1. The internet loves cats

2. The community loves cats

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1. The internet loves cats

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“When John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry developed the first digital computing machine at Iowa State University in 1937, little did they know that their invention would become an integral part of a sophisticated worldwide cat picture distribution system.” ~ David Burge
….

One day the internet will be more than a place to post a tribute to your cat. But thankfully that day isn’t today. If you haven’t noticed, cats are big on the Internet. Even though the occasional panda, gets a slice of the viral action, cats are, and always have been, the stars online.

This is Maru – the worlds most famous cat. He has a website and a YouTube channel and some of his videos have been viewed more than 20 million times.

But it’s more than just the ‘cute factor’. Although many online hits are cute or funny – there are just as many that portray cats as sinister creatures, plotting against man. Cats inspire awe. They are enigmatic. They have a hint of the danger about them. And they’re often seen on the laps and laptops of professionals and geeks. Cats are the perfect vehicle for Internet humor because with their expressive face.and gestures they are a great canvas for human emotion, captioning and anthropomorphising.

I’m sure everyone has seen LOLcats before – this website is now one of the most popular sites on the internet and has been valued at more than $30 million dollars.

Simon’s Cat is another internet sensation. Simon is an English animator who shares his life with four cats; Hugh, Maisy, Jess and Teddy. This video was his for YouTube hit and has been viewed 30 million times.

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Harnessing our love of cats

Okay, they’re all a lot of fun, but the big question is…

How to harness it?

The easiest way to bring some of this internet love to your cats is through web videos.

Check out my rescue’s guide to creating awesome web videos here

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2. The community love cats

This trend towards seeing cats as being a geeky-funky indoor and easy care pet, has had a huge influence on how people are seeing them in the community. There is a new kind of cat owner and the influence is decidedly male.

The Top 10 Ways to Upgrade Your Cat’s Life is an article by the decidedly geeky Lifehackers site. Geeks love cats. In fact, too much cat geek is never enough…

(you must watch this until at least the ‘cat yodeling’ part *snortle*)

Modern guys like cats;

Will Anderson has been a huge support of cat welfare groups and a promoter of cats as pets. Wil has three adopted cats – Tip, Diego and Ziggy – and says that the adoption process was easy. “Going through an organisation like PetRescue means you can be confident your pet will be healthy and have all its shots and they only match people with pets that suit their needs.”

Russell Brand is also a well known cat lover (video NSFW):

While this video shows the depth of guys-who-love-cats attraction:

Here is another example where our love of cats has shone.

Since the 1980s, the area around the historic inner Sydney suburb of Newtown has had works of graffiti and street art placed on local walls.

When a graffiti artist drew about 50 cats on walls throughout Newtown, they were so popular with the community, they spawned a book entitled ‘The Stripey Street Cat’. The book which is about a cat’s intrepid journey through the streets to find a missing friend, is features 19 colour photographs of the cats taken by the author.

Back to the US now, for an example of a rescue group harnessing the community’s love of cats.

For the past six years, Macy’s department store has helped the San Fransico SPCA connect with potential adopters through an innovative Christmas campaign.

Through the months of November and December, animals are showcased to the public in comfortable, climate controlled displays as part of the Macy’s holiday windows.

Voted “One of the ten best places to press your nose” by USA TODAY, this tradition is one of the most beloved symbols of the holiday spirit in San Francisco. Last year, about 300 animals featured in Macy’s holiday windows found new homes from the adoption center on the Main Floor and more than $70,000 in donations was raised for the SF SPCA. All together more than 2,000 animals have been placed through the program. (See more pics here)

How to harness it

In WA, based roughly on the number of cats who pass away naturally, there are between 10 and 15,000 homes opening each year with loving owners looking to replace their cat. While some are already committed to getting one from another source like a breeder, if we can influence just some of the others to adopt their next cat – we CAN save every adoptable animal.

And that is simply the organic numbers. This doesn’t include people who are getting a cat for the first time. Or people returning to cat ownership after a break. Or people expanding from a single to a multi-cat household. Or people who’d be willing to care for a community cat. Or temporary homes that would foster a cat for a time.

This idea that there are too many healthy, friendly cats and not enough homes, simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Especially when you start to see what kind of success other communities are having using innovative adoption promotions.

Hold a ‘free’ cat adoption event

Free cat adoption has had enormous success overseas, resulting in dramatically increased adoption rates.

- Johnson County, Kansas did a summer promotion of ‘free’ cats & doubled their adoptions.

- The Humane Society of Boulder Valley enjoyed its largest adoption day ever, which was also the first day they ever offered free adoptions for cats and kittens. In a single day, they placed 117 animals.

- New Zealand SPCA offered ‘free-feline Friday’. Their offices were flooded with prospective owners on Friday morning and by Friday afternoon 150 kittens were adopted. Fosterers were bringing in kittens to meet demand.

- 41 shelters and rescue groups got together for the Maddies Matchmaker Adoptathon, offering free pet adoption. 1,500 pets were rehomed in a single weekend.

- Nevada Humane Society US, have been using ‘free’ in their adoption mix since 2007 and now rehome more than 1,000 pets a month.

- The ASPCA are now officially recommending ‘fee waived’ programs as a technique for increasing cat adoption.

And now we have know that ‘free’ works in Australia also.

- In February this year RSPCA NSW ran a price based campaign. They began with a call to action;

“(we) are overwhelmed by the sheer number of cats and kittens that need homes or face being euthanased. In a desperate attempt to save as many feline lives as possible, the organisation is waiving cat adoption fees at five locations throughout the state.”

Instead of an ‘adoption fee’ new owners simply had to buy a $60 pack of cat goodies from their online store. On the *very first day* of their 5 day ‘free’ cat adoption promo, the RSPCA NSW has issued this notice on their FB page…

“UPDATE: Please bear with us. We are overwhelmed with the response & we thank everyone for their support. Our facilities are very busy at present and your patience and understanding is appreciated”

The campaign was an overwhelming success, finding homes for over 500 cats in five days. They’ve since adopted a similar campaign which extended to cover all animals at all RSPCA NSW shelters state-wide.

- In November last year, the RSPCA Victoria offered three days of free cat adoptions and extended trading hours.

Cat lovers swamped the organisation’s shelters, taking advantage of the twilight adoption hours. Between Thursday and Saturday (3 days) 110 cats found new homes. And why didn’t they adopt more?

They ran out of cats

Every cat older than four months found favour with a new owner offering a home. The shelter’s nine Victorian catteries were emptied for the first time, ever.

According to the New Zealand ‘Saving Lives’ program, where this has been practiced, it has been noted that these kinds of adoption events can account for between 20% and 40% of total adoptions, and accordingly are well worth the effort.

See more on free cat adoption events here

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So that’s it from me.

I hope this has provided some inspiration for your cat promotions and adoptions today. Feel free to come speak to me either after the event, or contact me through the PetRescue website, if you would like any more information on the things I’ve presented here today.

Thanks very much!