This?

Or this?

From a WA animal shelter’s ‘Adoption Adviser’;

The great offence that these potential adopters committed? To need some support in working to getting landlord approval to have a pet.

When people willing to open their hearts and families to a rescue pet feel the only option they have is to lie to us, then we’ve failed to give them the information they need to have a successful pet ownership experience. There are dozens of resources we can provide to people having landlord issues; with some coaching, a clever pet resume and a reference from the shelter to offer to take the pet back should the adoption not work out, maybe this landlord could be swayed to allowing this pet. Simply denying and scorning people who clearly wanted to adopt badly is petty and unhelpful. Not to mention the likelihood that these potential adopters will now go to a pet shop, the one place we beg people not to go to!

If you allow festering attitudes of ‘us against them’ to live in your shelter, then you will have a team not working to make adoptions happen, but to relish in the chance to refuse them.






More info:

and here:
http://www.petfriendlyrentals.com.au/blog/2010/02/petnet-tv-series-two-part-special-on-renting-with-pets/

… that cats should be indoors, that cats should be registered and desexed by law and that free-roaming cats need to be trapped for their own good; then you can’t say ‘it’s not our job’ when they ask you for help.

Sad abandoned cats cause concerns at Quakers Hill

(Cat pic) It’s hard to imagine that a face like this lives off discarded food scavenged from rubbish bins. Sadly, this is the reality for dozens of stray cats who have sought refuge around the Parkway Rd McDonald’s and the Caltex Service Station at Quakers Hill.

Resident Sarah King says Blacktown City Council and the RSPCA seemed disinclined to help so she has launched a petition urging the council to take action against the growing feral cat population.

Ms King and a group of friends plan to trap as many cats as they can and petition the council to find them new homes or destroy the animals humanely.

She said businesses, the council and the RSPCA were caught up in a game of “finger pointing”.

“The response has been pretty appalling, but something needs to be done,” Ms King said. “These cats are starving, carrying disease and living a … horrible life. They keep breeding and it’s getting worse.”

Driving through the area the Advocate saw cats in bins, kittens hiding in the hedges – even remains on the side of Parkway Rd and a carcass in a garden bed.

McDonald’s hired a private firm to remove kittens and adults but numbers are again getting out of hand and they don’t believe it’s their sole responsibility.

[...]
Two RSPCA spokeswomen told the Advocate the cats were not their responsibility and “economic pressure” prevented them taking further action.

Ms King has now lodged a formal complaint with Blacktown City Council who declined the opportunity to comment when contacted by the Advocate.

Fur flies over inaction on cats

Animal lover Chris Lyall says a cat and her four kittens could be buried alive if the bulldozing of four derelict houses on Woodland St, Balgowlah, continues.

The Manly resident said the family of strays has taken refuge under one of the houses with all efforts to rescue them so far unsuccessful.

[...]
Hoping for action to delay the demolition, Mr Lyall contacted Manly Council but claims they are yet to act.

Manly Council general manager Henry Wong said the council was aware of the situation but it was the RSPCA or other animal welfare organisations that were the appropriate bodies to assist with the matter.

The cats’ plight, however, has created confusion, with the RSPCA indicating that the welfare of the mother and her kittens was the council’s responsibility under the Companion Animals Act.

Mr Lyall said the lack of help was frustrating.

[...]
Ellen McGinness, from the Cat Protection Society, said it appeared the issue was being palmed off.

“It should be the council’s responsibility – the RSPCA only deal with owned cats. There is a huge problem with councils not taking responsibility.”

The New Zealanders might have just overtaken Australia in the race to modernised animal sheltering industry.

Over 125 years ago, New Zealand opened its first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA. Today, proving that even an ‘old’ organisation can lead the way in modern thinking, they have pledged their dedication to a No Kill future for New Zealand.

The Saving Lives philosophy is that every life is precious, and with that philosophy comes the need to help every animal into the fulfilment of life, so long as its quality of life is preserved.

Calling their program ‘Saving Lives’ rather than ‘No Kill’, they reaffirm that they are in the “business of saving lives” and call on their staff to “becomes passionately committed to supporting its philosophy” and “accept the philosophy that Saving Lives is totally achievable”.

But this isn’t just feel-good piffle. To move towards their No Kill goals, they first had to take a long hard look at their policies, identifying the common causes of shelter killing, and take audit of each one’s validity.

One of the major breakthoughs from this audit, was the identification of a cultural problem with exisiting euthanasia protocols. Rather than use the protocols to make compassionate decisions, the documentation and policies had become a way to defend killing and absolve individuals of the responsibility.

The new model asked people to step up and be more than just a ‘rule follower’;

Accountability allows, and indeed requires, flexibility. Too many SPCA centres lose sight of this principle, staying rigid with their protocols, believing they are engraved in stone. They are not.

Where protocols are important because they ensure accountability, protocols without flexibility can have the opposite effect by stifling innovation, causing lives to be needlessly lost, and allowing those who fail to save lives an excuse as to why they failed.”

The organisation’s pledge to maintain protocols and procedures orientated towards preserving life, means they must find solutions to the common reasons for shelter killing.

Beyond killing

Health

“Cat flu is not a reason to kill cats”.

By referring to cat flu as ’snuffles’, a normal and preventable part of caring for shelter cats, the group was able to take a scientific, rather than defensive, approach to managing illness;

In an eight-year study conducted in Auckland, approximately 40% of incoming cats developed ’snuffles’ (in the first year of the survey). Various methods, including efforts to reduce the stressful environment, in addition to cleaning regimes, have reduced this figure to 25%. With the development of isolation areas providing the opportunity to treat those affected, the success rate for treatment has increased from 34% (annual average) to 61%, while euthanasia of snuffles sufferers has dropped from 24% to 3% in the treatment area.

These figures clearly indicate that a combination of stress-free environments, cleaning regimes, strict isolation areas and the correct medical treatment can have a direct effect on saving lives from “snuffles”.

“Ringworm is not a reason to kill animals”. Describing ringworm as a ‘nuisance’ rather than a deadly disease, but recognising ringworm passed to the public is a publicity nightmare, the group recommends the following;

The use of foster homes is ideal in isolating ringworm from an SPCA centre. However, such fosterers need to be dedicated to the task and, due to the length of treatment, are “put out of action” for the fostering of other animals for a lengthy period of time. The use of off-site adoption events to rehome these animals will ensure that they do not return ringworm to the centre.

The use of a team of ’special needs’ foster carers, coupled with a healthy, stress-free environment, strict isolation and treatment regimes mean a commitment that pets with ringworm will be saved.

The group also treat skin conditions (flea allergies and mange) either on site, or in foster. By offering full disclosure and treatment plans to new adopters, pets with skin conditions are able to finish their recovery in their new homes.

Temperament

Pets entering shelters, by definition, have varying backgrounds and requirements for care. The organisation pledge to help all animals, regardless of their condition;

If we are to save lives we need to cater to these special problems by providing facilities that can attend to their needs and, of equal importance, that involve rehabilitation methods requiring the expertise of those qualified to provide the help needed to restore them to normality.

When referring to cats, ‘feral’ is not in the group’s vocabulary.

By definition, “feral” cats do not have contact with or dependency on humans. Accordingly, centres are very unlikely to receive genuine “feral” cats.

Incoming stray cats will normally be abandoned previously owned companion cats or possibly cats from colonies. Either way, they will not appreciate being trapped and will show their displeasure in no uncertain terms. For this reason they are described (incorrectly) as “feral”, when in fact they are “wild” (unused to handling, resenting capture, possibly never domesticated), “scared” (frightened by their captivity and uncertain of their future), or “timid” (naturally mistrusting and unsure).

Such cats deserve the chance to live, and should be given the opportunity to adjust and relax a little over a few days rather than being hastily dispatched.

Dogs get a similar level of respect, with the recognition that the behaviour of dogs is a product of their previous environment and that with time, patience and training – most dogs with perceived temperament problems can be successfully adopted.

Any temperament assessment should be aimed at “getting to know the dog” and whether any behavioural problems might exist that can be treated, rather than being aimed at putting it to the final test to determine its ultimate fate.

Additional to “on-site” facilities, rehabilitation of behavioural problems, particularly with dogs, will include the input of independent and professional individuals.

The variety of temperament problems may call for different advice, from either a veterinarian or a behaviourist.

Correct behaviour adjustment techniques can be taught to staff/volunteers, which can prove a very real asset in the operation of a centre, resulting in the correct and professional handling of animals while in our care.

Age

Recognising the importance of foster care in saving underage animals, this organisation engages the compassion of community;

The inability to save healthy young animals reflects badly on us as a welfare organisation, particularly when there are so many people in the community who would gladly volunteer themselves and their homes to foster the young until ready for adoption.

…………………………….

Getting pets out of shelters

Along with a requirement to overcome killing as a method of managing shelter pets, the organisation also needed to get those pets they have, out of the shelter.

Pet retention strategies

The Saving Lives philosophy calls for a willingness to work with people to help them solve their problems, with the sole aim of keeping people and their companion animals together. In our ethos of “prevention” we need to be seen as a place that people can turn to for advice and assistance, and we need to respond to that. to solve problems

Identifying that the very first call for help is an opportunity for the shelter to lend assistance, the organisation works to develop relationships with local trainers, veterinarians and behaviouralists. These relationships are symbiotic, generating new clients for these businesses, and expanding the knowledge base of the shelter, though simple training for staff.

There is discussion about the development of a general national call number for people with pet problems in the future,

Desexing

High-volume, low cost desexing is at the heart of any successful life-saving programme to substantially reduce the number of unwanted births, and the number of animals surrendered to SPCA centres.

It is fair to say that a proactive high-volume, low/no cost desexing programme is the best investment any centre can make in the fight to save future lives.

Along with community desexing clinic, the organisation desexes all animals before adoption and seeks the support from local council animal management for desexing initiatives. Free, targeted desexing for at-risk pets in low income areas, desexing vouchers for semi-owned cat owners, mobile desexing facilities and proactive education campaigns bring the benefits of desexing to all pets in the community.

An effective desexing programme has been proven in many cities internationally to virtually halve the centre incoming animal population within a decade of its introduction missed.

Improving reclaims

A focus on the importance of microchipping. All adopted pets are chipped and the organisation run ’snip and chip’ promotions.

The requirement that all animals are scanned and that pet owners are contacted promptly. They also list found pets on the internet.

Maximising adoptions

Focusing on promoting the benefits to the adoption of shelter animals:

- unique ‘feel good’ factor
- the use of the term ‘orphan’ rather than ’stray’
- great value (desexed, vaccinated, microchipped)

They also make the following requirement of their shelters:

SPCA facilities should be a great place to visit, with staff/volunteers happy and helpful professional people who are keen to assist as best they can because they want to, not only for the people they are serving but also for the animals they are dedicated to saving.

Adoption areas need to be clean and contain contented, well-presented animals in bright and airy surroundings, rather than the “prison behind bars” that the public envisage we are. Public facilities in cared-for grounds and surroundings must abound, to help add to the enjoyment
of their visit to the SPCA.

Hosting adoption areas with staff/volunteers who are helpful and knowledgeable is essential. Make sure that staff/volunteers are easily recognisable with suitable clothing and name tags.

There is nothing worse than having the public looking for animals when there is no one they can find to help them with their selection.

They ask that shelters name the pet to engage potential adopters (even if the animal is a stray) and that an information sheet is provided on the animal. These sheets are designed to accentuate the positive (“Not good with children” becomes “good with adults”) and all pets must be ready for adoption (behavioural and health problems resolved).

Opening hours must be convenient for potential adopters, including seven-day-a-week adoptions and early evening opening hours. They also endeavour to provide a wide range of animals:

A centre with a wide choice of animals is a successful centre, providing variety for “discerning shoppers”. If low on animals, source them from elsewhere (other SPCAs, pounds, rescue groups, etc).

Dogs being walked, all wear ‘adopt me’ jackets to attract attention and a database of people looking for a particular ‘kind’ of animal is kept. Profiles of adoptable animals are also posted to the web.

Price is presented as a recouping of a set amount of ‘adoption costs’ and special pricing promotions are used to attract adopters. ‘Two for the price of one’ kittens, special pet care giveaways, free food promotions.

A ‘14 day’ guarantee, helps adopted pets stay in their homes:

Inevitably, some animals (particularly cats) may be slow to adapt to their new surroundings, and may even become stressed, bringing on other “ailments”.

New “owners” are generally nervous and may panic at such behaviour, often rushing off to their vet for advice and incurring associated costs which they may endeavour to recover from the SPCA.

Provide a 14-day period where the animal will be covered for any associated costs at a set ceiling price (say, $50) at your expense. You will find that few people will claim this and, by setting a maximum, considerable money will in the end be saved from over-exuberant vets and anxious “owners”!

Off-site adoptions

Adoption vehicles in shopping centre car parks and outside pet shops or the use of retail space, display pets for adoption. Partnerships with local businesses can help get pets ’seen’, and off-site adoption attracts people who may not even be considering adopting an animal.

Where this has been practiced, it has been noted that off-site adoptions can account for between 20% and 40% of total adoptions achieved, and accordingly is well worth the effort.

These promotions not only raise awareness, but are a great opportunity to fund raise.

Working with rescue groups

There are a large number of animal welfare groups and individuals who, in their own way, undertake the rescue and rehoming of many animals and to whom we should look to assist us in our mission of saving lives.

These groups and individuals should not be viewed as “the competition” (as is sometimes the case), rather they should be seen as allies undertaking the same work for the same reasons we do. For, as long as unnecessary killing occurs in our own centre, rare would be the case where we would not utilise their assistance in taking custody of and rehoming those animals we have whose life is at risk.

Get to know them all, and work with them to save lives.

Working with foster homes

Proactive recruitment of foster carers, advanced levels of support and training opportunities and a positive regard for the contribution they make is vital to the success of their foster care program;

Training, equipment, food, litter and any medication required are all supplied by the SPCA to its foster homes, and a full support network of helpful staff or volunteer supervisors is also important to the programme. Keeping our fosterers happy is as important as keeping our animals happy!

They also offer innovative foster programs, like ’seniors for seniors’ and the adoption of foster pets by the foster homes.

Working with volunteers

Volunteers have been described as a dedicated “army of compassion” and are the backbone of a successful centre operation.

The organisation engage volunteers for animal care, but also public interaction and adoption support.

…fortunately there are a large number of people who gladly give of their time to help animals – however, we need to ask them, train them, assign duties to them and look after them.

Saving the strays

There are a vast number of people who voluntarily tend to stray cats in the community, normally in a “cat colony” (which can be small or large) or in a controlled situation or on their own property. Such cats were mostly once companion cats who have been abandoned, while some are the offspring of those cats who were not desexed prior to abandonment. They assemble in colonies, requiring the support and assistance of humans for their ongoing sustenance and welfare.

These people are dedicated to their task, spending many hours (and much of their own money) to care for these cats. Their sole objective is to save lives, and accordingly they are an essential part of this programme and deserving of our full support.

Recognising the contribution of community cat carers is vital to reducing intakes and the number of cats dying in shelters. This organisation embraces their work and offers them the support they need to continue in their life-saving work.

They formed the ‘Cat Coalition’, assisting with donated food and desexing vouchers and support to manage problems as they arise. The coalition members, in addition to being supported, also operate under protocols designed with the ongoing welfare of the cats and their care in mind.

They expanded the program to include those people looking to surrender a ’stray’ cat. Rather than accept a fractious cat from a surendee’s own property, the organisation offers the chance to adopt the cat as a ‘barn cat’, have it desexed and save its life.
………………….

No Kill is about what you DO, do

This organisation has taken on every aspect of the No Kill equation, and reclaimed its role as a life-saving resource in the community. What their experience has shown is that No Kill isn’t about what you don’t do (kill), but what you do, do… execute a series of proven, modern animal sheltering techniques that simply run in a contrary manner to convenience killing.

The fact that one of the oldest and largest animal welfare organisations in the country has taken the lead in moving New Zealand towards its No Kill future, is testament to the dynamic leadership of the organisation (see my previous article on Bob Kerridge from the SPCA here).

The ‘Saving Lives’ plan from the SPCA New Zealand could be rolled out in any shelter tomorrow.

It’s time that every Australian demands the same level of performance from our own animal welfare groups and seek out and support those organisations who are already on a No Kill path.

Australian shelter pets also deserve a No Kill future.

There’s lots of talk lately of licencing schemes for dog owners, to counter high numbers of ‘irresponsible owners’. The Lost Dogs Home recently introduced its own pilot pet ownership licencing scheme, while the RSPCA have been working to bring in ‘responsible dog ownership’ legislation in an effort to reduce the number of dogs abused and abandoned. And each and every week articles, like this one from WA, are published in local papers around the country:

Dumped – Dog owners shame

Dog owners are being urged to consider the consequences of abandoning their pets after new figures revealed about 1000 dogs a year were impounded in Stirling alone.

RSPCA spokesman Richard Barry said that the high rate of stray and abandoned dogs was disappointing.

“It’s of great concern to us that some dogs are simply abandoned for myriad reasons, ranging from a change in location through to a change in financial circumstances,” he said.

“One has to consider what their pet will go through once they have turned their back on it.”

He said a lack of desexing had a ‘tremendous influence’ on the high number of animals needing a home.

Stirling community development director Trevor Holland urged people to be committed to pet ownership before taking on the responsibility of owning a dog.

“Owning and caring for a pet comes with responsibilities, and these are for the duration of their lives, not just the holidays.”

And it sounds fair enough. The pounds are full and dogs are being euthanased so it’s a natural progression to start thinking that the public must be terrible and that they’re abandoning pets at enormous rates.

So, do the public really suck?

The article went on to present the following statistics:

2007
Total number of dogs impounded – 976
Reclaimed by owners – 596
Rehomed – 213
Killed – 167

2008
Total number of dogs impounded – 1015
Reclaimed by owners – 647
Rehomed – 190
Killed – 178

2009 (to October)
Total number of dogs impounded – 744
Reclaimed by owners – 500
Rehomed – 142
Killed – 102

Now, the City of Stirling has 84,000 people, and 17,000 registered dogs. They get, according to these statistics, around 1,000 dogs impounded each year. That’s about 5% of the total dog population.

So 95% of owned dogs live in their homes, without needing to go to the shelter.

That’s not terrible – that’s freaking fantastic!! And is it possible to improve on this? Probably not much.

In the shire each year around 600 dogs are collected by the owners (lost dogs) and of the 400 left, about 200 are rehomed and about 200 are killed.

Now just think about that for a second. They kill 200, save 200. They kill one for every one they save. That’s a 50% fail rate!

If I ran a business that made cakes and I failed to sell every second one; I’d go out of business.

If I was a teacher and every second child I taught couldn’t read; I’d (hopefully) get the sack.

If I was a fireman and every second fire burnt the building to the ground; my manager would be examining whether we had enough training, enough skills or whether other fire stations were doing any better.

You get the idea. Meanwhile pounds fail one in every two times, throw their hands up in the air and go ‘our public sucks – whattaya gonna do?’

And not much changes.

But there’s not enough homes!

Well, lets look at it. If a dog lives an average 10 years, and assuming most people replace a dog within a few months of it passing:

Stirling’s population 17,000 dogs with 10% dying each year means there are approximately 1,700 new homes becoming available each and every year.

Stirling have just 400 dogs each year to rehome, there’s more than 4 times more homes available, than dogs they need to place. Not counting new homes or moving outside of their shire.

So they only need to convince one in every four people actively looking for a new dog, to adopt. Or another way, they need to complete just two adoptions a day. And it doesn’t need to be just adoptions; it can be handing them over to rescue, or networking with other Shires to ’swap’ animals, or just handing them over the local pet shop. Anything but killing them.

These guys are open for 3.5hrs weekdays, while potential adopters are at work (2.00pm – 5.30pm), and they’re open for 1hr on weekends. So, they offer working families, exactly 2 hrs per week to adopt.

Imagine if a pet shop was open these hours. And located in an industrial area. Would we be shocked if it didn’t have any customers? Not very.

The myth that owners are to blame

There is an awful lot of good to comment on about Stirling Council. They work with local rescue groups, have a volunteer program and they put their lost dogs on the web. And they made their annual figures available. But they’re still trapped in that blame culture which looks to punish the community for the number of pets killed in the shelter, rather than examining whether it needs to happen at all.

The scary thing is, if you do this with nearly any shire pound in Australia, you’ll find a similar story. They’ll say ‘we’re swamped; there’s so many irresponsible people in our area’ but then when you look at their intakes, they’re some tiny, insignificant number of the overall dog population. And the number of pets they do manage to save is tragically small.

While we’re often keen to get on board legislative solutions that target the public, targeting the community, who is overwhelmingly responsible and compliant, is both insulting and futile. Meanwhile, even in the face of incredibly high kill rates, we’re reluctant to cast a similar critical approach to the operating procedures of pounds in this country.

If we ever want to see a reduction in shelter pet killing, we must start calling these councils on their lack of performance; and they need to stop blaming pet owners for the killing and start taking those steps necessary to stop it.

One of the biggest obstacles to lost dogs being reunited with their owners, is animals not being handed into the pound as soon as they’re found.

Worried that the pound will simply euthanase the dog, the finder holds onto the animal. Then, when they are unsuccessful in their search for the owner, they drop the dog off at the pound a few days or weeks later. By the time the dog arrives, the once frantic owner is no longer out looking. Without identification, the chances of pet and owner being reunited is almost zero.

Laws were created requiring lost pets to be impounded when found, in an effort to overcome any public resistance to handing pets into the pound. And while these seem like a good idea in theory, like many things in government, laws designed to mandate compassion becomes perverted and bureaucratised to the point where they couldn’t be less helpful;

Crazy laws mean people finding stray dogs can be fined for helping

It seems like a simple matter – a lost dog is found by a person who has no luck tracing the owner and wants to adopt it.

But as Simone Strong, of Blackwall, learnt, once the dead hand of government regulation gets in the way it’s not that easy.

Instead you are told you will be fined unless you hand the dog over so you can buy it back later.

Ms Strong found an abandoned brindle staffie-cross two weeks ago and, with a vet unable to trace the owner through its microchip, took it home.

“It was riddled with fleas and obviously underfed and although the vet found a chip they couldn’t find an address,” Ms Strong said.

“I left my details and a few days later a Gosford Council ranger left a message with one of my children saying he would be in touch soon.

“Another week went by and then he contacted me and said I had to take the dog to the pound where it would stay for two weeks before being taken to the RSPCA, when I would have the opportunity to buy it.”

Ms Strong rang the RSPCA, which said it was the owner of the dog, which had been rehoused once before, and she was welcome to keep it. But both Ms Strong and the RSPCA were then threatened with prosecution if the normal channels were not followed.

“I was told if I didn’t surrender the dog to the pound it would be taken by force.”

So after allowing the family to care, feed and become attached to the pet for near on two weeks, the council then demands the dog be impounded;

Gosford Council education and compliance manager John Parkes said the council was bound under the Companion Animals Act in its dealings with Simone Strong and the rescued dog.

“There seems to be some confusion over the onwership of this dog,” Mr Parkes said. “But the law says it must be surrendered to the council pound so we can conduct a search for the rightful owner.

“If that is unsuccessful, after 14 days it will be taken to the RSPCA, which will then become the rightful owner of the animal with the power to place it in a new home.”

Mr Parkes said the law could appear to be too bureaucratic but was in place in the interests of all pet owners. He said Ms Strong could surrender the dog after Easter without the fear of incurring a fine.

Given the importance of the first couple of days in helping people find their pets, it would be assumed that councils would be doing everything in their power to encourage people take lost dogs to the pound asap. While Ms Strong did the right thing in reporting this dog to council, their convoluted and inefficient response, only serves to discourage other animal lovers to from contacting council at all, when they find an animal. Letting her keep the dog for two weeks is completely unfair on both the dog and her family – he should have been impounded immediately, or not at all.

Hopefully the RSPCA will take the lead in ensuring Ms Strong and her family get to adopt this guy. And shame on Gosford Council for taking such an uncompassionate stance towards their communities homeless pets.

Check out this CEO Update from the latest RSPCA ACT e-newsletter. Doesn’t it just make you want to dance and sing?! (bolding mine)

From the CEO…

As CEO people often ask me if it is sad working at RSPCA. My response is always the same, no. RSPCA is a happy, warm and supportive place to work. We home a greater percentage of animals than any other open admission Australian shelter and we are influencing dozens of shelters and pounds across Australia and internationally to improve the number of animals homed. We are always innovating and looking at positive ways to find homes for animals. We are also working on a number of strategies to help keep people and their pets together.

Strategically there are two ways forward for animal welfare. One is adoption matching and ensuring an animal goes to its forever home and will never be surrendered again. The second is reducing surrenders of unwanted animals and working with families on the brink of surrender.

We are well on the way to solving the first one as our Find-a-Friend system is now the national standard for RSPCA’s Australia wide. We do need to do extensive work however with the whole issue of pet acquisition. Pet shops, classified advertising and market stalls remain a key source of pet supply and in most cases the match is a bad one. If you want to help us continue this battle a donation to our forthcoming appeal would be very much appreciated.

The second strategy is more problematic and involves real estate agents, land lords, unit title holders and people who move house putting in a little bit more effort to ensure when they relocate their pet is catered for. Moving house is the single biggest reason people cite as a factor in surrendering their pet. Again you can help by donating or supporting RSPCA in a number of other ways.

Read on for more interesting information about RSPCA and the work we continue to do for our community.

Michael Linke
CEO

See more of the goodness that is the leadership of Michael Linke below. See how everyone is smiling? That’s because they like what they do.

A council’s animal management department can be a huge asset to its community; working to keep its public safe, offering a service that protects people and their animals and leading the way in compassion. Or it can work against its public, seeing them as an enemy that needs to be coerced with more laws, more fines and convoluted bureaucracy.

And sometimes it sits in the grey area between.

But what is certain amongst all pounds and shelters in 2010 is that the public are informed about, comparing and critiquing their local animal organisation’s performance like never before. Online discussion and the community’s feeling that pets are ‘family members’, combined with the realisation that other countries have made huge advancements in sheltering techniques that save the lives of animals, has lead to pet owners questioning the role of modern animal management. If people feel they aren’t getting the best from their local departments, they’re starting to ask why?

When family pets entering the pound system, fail to make it out alive (especially when the reason they’ve lost their lives are the cost of impoundment fees, paperwork mix-ups or short holding times) distraught pet owners are fighting back. And when they do, they’re taking their message to the masses.

• When Michala Herbert discovered her kitten missing just before Christmas, she door knocked her neighbourhood, finding her kitten hand been handed into the RSPCA by a neighbour. Although the family went to claim the cat nearly immediately, the shelter staff suspected ringworm and it was killed on arrival;
  
  

  A wandering kitten has caused heartache for the Herbert family after the cat was put down after just a few hours at the RSPCA.

  

  Ms Herbert claimed when she arrived at the shelter she was told her kitten, Lucky, had been put down as there were too many kittens at the shelter.

  
  

• In the same month, a golden retriever cross named ‘Brindle’ entered the Lost Dogs Home Cranbourne pound two days before Christmas.
  
  

  
  
  

  

  Ms Bierman received a call from the pound telling her Brindle was there, but despite offering to collect her straight away she was told she couldn’t because Brindle was registered in her former partner Paul Lindley’s name.

  The next day, when Mr Lindley went with their children to collect Brindle they were turned away because her microchip details were in Ms Bierman’s name.

  Despite being just 30 minutes from closing for the Christmas holiday period, the pound refused to give the children their dog.
  …..
  After repeated phone calls between Ms Bierman, the pound and animal welfare officers at Frankston Council, Ms Bierman was told on New Year’s Eve that Mr Lindley could collect Brindle.

  Less than 10 minutes later she received another call from the council to tell her Brindle was dead.

  
  

• Another miserable Christmas for a family in Ipswich, where the pound killed a dog that had been a family Christmas present, ordered from a purebred breeder interstate.
  
  

  The family had only had ‘Josephine’ a few days over the holiday break, before she escaped. The family reported the loss to the RSPCA, but with limited knowledge of the pound system, mistakenly believed they would be contacted if their dog was found. They weren’t and Joesphine was killed after the pound’s three day holding period.

  
  
  Ipswich City Council Pound did not cross reference with the RSPCA before they put her down otherwise Josephine would have been returned to us. I would have thought the RSPCA would be the first place they would liase with.
  .

  
  

• And in our newest case of an owned pet losing its life, is the story of ‘Biscuit’ – killed by Mount Isa City Council.
  
  

  Mount Isa Isa City Council pound has killed a dog who escaped from its owners yard during last Wednesday’s thunderstorm, after taking money from its owner for its release.

  The Jack Russell-cross named Biscuit was destroyed despite its owner, Georgie Martin, identifying the dog as hers.

  The council has a policy of putting dogs down if they remain unidentified after three days, but Biscuit was not even given that long.

  Ms Martin found Biscuit in the pound the day after she went missing.

  “She was so happy to see us, but there was nobody there,” she said.
  ….
  “My husband went down there on a Friday and he could see (Jacqueline) in the cage. I rang the pound and asked if I could come get her tomorrow. But because it was Friday, they said I’d have to come get her on Monday,” Jacqueline’s owner said.

  “I went in to get her on Monday and she wasn’t there.”

  
  
  The experience of Jacqueline’s family did not go unnoticed, with the story leading to other owners coming forward to sharing their experiences of pets being held to ransom.
  

While each of these stories are littered with failures – the result is the same. Pets with owners who loved them are dead. It’s worth noting all of these cases have happened in just three months.

Our pets deserve better.

All avenues must be exhausted to keep pets from becoming lost, and when they are, every effort made to reunite them with their families. Whether it’s keeping pets longer, making it easy for people to register their pets through online systems, lost pet databases or promotions highlighting the value of a collar and tag, these stories of heartbreak should serve to re-enforce the notion that impounded pets are nearly always lost family members. Killing a pet who has an owner should be regarded as the ultimate failure of an animal management system, and when it happens pet lovers everywhere have the right to question why.

With stories are being brought into the public domain for discussion, killing is no longer happening behind closed doors. And this new wave of people questioning why the system fails is vital to continuing to improve outcomes for shelter pets.

… From KC Dog blog – Improving Customer Service Imperative to Increasing Adoptions

The problems many people have in getting approval to adopt has actually hit the mainstream — and it is becoming a bit of a joke among the general public. Just last week I caught this clip of a comedian talking about the adoption process. I think even more disappointing than the comedian’s jokes, themselves, is the fact that the woman in the audience that he keys in on is so adamently agreeing with him about the hoops that she had to go through for adoption. Watch the video – -it’s only a couple of minutes long.

And from the comments;

It’s sad how accurately that guy’s joke sums up the problem with the value system a lot of shelters have — in other words, that death is better for an animal than a lifestyle that is less than perfect in every way. We need some more realists and fewer idealist ‘my way or the highway’-types in the shelter world, it seems.

Go here to read the whole thing and watch the vid.

Blacktown pound’s god-awful ‘bidding’ system is under fire from their local community.

Bidding madness riles locals at Blacktown Pound

More animals are killed at Blacktown Animal Holding Facility than anywhere else in the state, yet it continues to use an archaic system where people have to bid to rescue a homeless pet.

The system allows the council to make money but puts some popular animals usually the cute puppies beyond the reach of an average family.
…

Early this month, a little female terrier at the pound grabbed so much attention she was bid for by a dozen people and eventually sold for $400.

The Castle family, who missed out on the dog despite entering a bid of $150, 2 times the minimum sale price of $60, are outraged, saying 11 other dogs could have been rescued.

Instead, 11 families went home empty-handed.
…..

A Blacktown Council spokeswoman said the bidding system was introduced to discourage semi-professional and backyard breeders who would go to the pound every morning and buy the desirable animals.

She said animals within the pound’s seven-to-14-day holding period could be bid for.

“When the animal is due out, the highest tender is contacted and offered the animal,” she said.

Cr Russ Dickens, a Blacktown vet, said the ‘worthless’ system should be eliminated.

He introduced a no-kill policy late last year and said removing the tender process would help save animals on death row.

In 2008, 1419 dogs and 3146 cats were put down at the council facility.

“We don’t want to make money out of them,” Cr Dickens said. “We want to get them out of there and into a positive environment.”

Now I’m not going to give Blacktown too much of a roasting here, because I genuinely believe there is change underway at their pound. But if they’re serious about their pledge to become No Kill, then they absolutely have to make overhauling their processes a priority.

Below is an outline of the programs needed in any community to take it toward a No Kill future.

A huge thanks to Fred of One Bark at a Time for putting a list together for his community, that allows us to all to build one for our own.

Desexing

With a full pound and a high euthanasia rate, the present system of releasing undesexed animals to the public must be stopped.

- Modern adopters expect to pay an adoption fee that includes desexing, so develop variable or set adoption fees which includes the cost of vet work.

- Reach out to local vets to desex adult pets before adoption.

- Reach out to rescue groups, allowing them to use their own veterinarian to do the surgeries.

- Provide a voucher to all kitten/puppy adopters so they can get their pet desexed free when their pet reaches 6 months of age.

- Follow up with people who have adopted a kitten/puppy to ensure the animal is desexed at six months of age.

- Partner with local councils to lobby support from the community to help open a low cost desexing clinic at Blacktown.

- Invest all revenue from pet registrations back into animal care and outreach.

Reducing intakes

- Target vulnerable sections of the community with outreach pet desexing programs

- Identify areas where people have pet behavioural problems. Work to increase the numbers of single use dog off leash areas in those area. Engage local behavioural trainers and vets to increase puppy pre-school opportunities.

- Implement the policy that lost pet who are wearing ID or who have a microchip, are taken straight home by council officials, to decrease the impounded shelter population. (If there is a problem with the percentage of pets registered, see the Calgary model, offering service in return for compliance).

- Work with and assist local cat colony carers to offer an alternative to impoundment to unrehomable cats.

Getting pets adopted

Pre–adoption

- Give pets a thorough health and behavioural assessment before they are put in the adoption program.

- Any health issues should be identified and a treatment plan put into place to get the animal healthy and adoptable.

- Any behavioural issues (food aggression/dog aggression) should be identified and a treatment plan put into place to get the animal healthy and adoptable.

- A basic obedience program should be implemented for every dog admitted, using trained volunteers under the direction of a behavioural trainer.

- A puppy school should be offered for puppy socialisation and basic training.

- A socialisation program should be implemented for all animals admitted.

- Ensure pets available for adoption should be promptly listed in all available media; local newspapers, PetRescue and on the Blacktown Council website.

Adoptions

- Implement clear, concise, and consistent adoption protocols (a screening process)

- Adoption staff should have access to animal information (behaviour, health) so that match can be made between potential adopters and animals.

- Partner with local pet supplies stores to adopt out pets from their stores, or promote animal adoption in store.

- Expand partnerships with reputable local rescue groups to allow them to take animals and adopt them out.

- Promote open days at the shelter in conjunction with special times of the year (valentines day, christmas etc) and join existing local pet events to showcase animals.

- Develop a committee that will be in charge of creating an adoption strategy (specific to each animal) for animals that have been overlooked for adoption for an extended period.

- Implement a ‘secret shopper’ style program to audit staff behaviour towards potential adopters to identify any problems with customer service. Reward staff who offer a great adopter experience.

Adoption After-Care

- Help adopters access local pet care information; an adoption kit provided to all adopters with information on how to help their new pet adjust to their new home, introducing a new pet to an existing pet, where to get help with behavioural issues, exercise, how to find a vet, grooming, etc.

- Create a hotline for people to call if they run into issues with their new pet. The shelters involvement with an animal shouldn’t stop once the animal has left the building. Many return adoptions are related to behavioural issues and a system needs to be put into place to help adopters with the issues that lead to return adoptions.

- Partner up with dog trainers, grooming facilities, and veterinary clinics. These businesses may be willing to donate services or offer a discount to Blacktown animals in exchange for free advertising or promotion opportunities.

- Start a low cost basic obedience program in conjunction with local behavioural trainers. This will foster good relationships with members of the community, prevent surrenders due to minor behavioural issues, and provide revenue for the shelter. These basic training classes should be free for all adopted dogs.

Working with Rescues

- Expand and develop relationships with reputable rescue organisations.

- Contact rescues as soon as a potential candidate for transfer is identified.

- Create a links page on the Blacktown website profiling these rescues groups.

- Assist rescues with low-cost veterinary care and access to free desexing.

- Encourage the community to donate to local rescue groups.

- Organize all-in-rescue Adoptathons.

Working with Other Animal Shelters

- Identify shelters willing to work to with Blacktown in both regional and metropolitan areas.

- Create an animal trading program. If animals that are best suited to live in a rural environment, send those animals to a partner shelter in a rural environment in exchange for animals that would be well suited for an urban environment.

- Offer to help relieve overcrowding in other shelters when resources are available.

- Develop a positive working relationship between major shelters in the state.

Foster Program

- Create an active and continuous foster family recruitment strategy. Call for foster carers on the Blacktown Council website.

- Give these foster carers access to a behavioural training program and ongoing support.

- Allow foster parents to adopt their foster animals.

Volunteers

- Create an active and continuous volunteer recruitment strategy. Call for volunteers on the Blacktown Council website.

- Create a list of every specific role a volunteer can play at Blacktown, from laundry to cat grooming, to fundraising. Post this list on the website (with the details of each role) so that the public is aware of how their skills and interests can be used to help the animals.

- Work to match potential volunteers with areas of the shelter that match their interests.

- Create a volunteer training program for every aspect of the shelter; eg. Volunteers who work with animals should be given an animal behaviour course.

- Recruit volunteers who can help with specific jobs. Graphic designers, photographers, event planners, professional writers, etc can offer their specific skills to improve the website, information packages, plan fundraisers, etc. Create a list of these people and their skills so that the volunteer coordinators know who to call when specific jobs need to be done at the shelter.

Community Outreach and Public Relations

- Create a section of the website dedicated to keeping the public up to date on changes being made to improve policies and procedures in the shelter.

- Revamp the adoption aspect of the website. There should be images of the animals available for adoption, and good descriptions of them (can be done by volunteers).

- Create a section of the website dedicated to the distribution of information on how to deal with behavioural issues, the exercise needs of animals, the nutritional needs of animals, how to socialise animals, how to pet-proof your home, animal safety, the importance of veterinary care, etc.

- Create a listing of local animal rescue organisations.

- Create a volunteer section of the website with a list of ways volunteers can get involved.

- Use social media; a blog or a facebook page to promote animals at Blacktown. Allow the community to take control of promoting available animals themselves.

- Once a month do a write up on a staff member so that the public can get to know the people that work at the shelter. Do the same for a volunteer each month to encourage participation.

- Keep the public up to date on new programs and existing programs.

Create a Second Facility for Long-Term Animals

Work with the community to build a facility for animals with behavioural issues that need more work than can be provided at the pound. The goal of this facility would be to rehabilitate animals that are unsuitable for adoption. Animals would stay at this facility until their behaviour has been modified and they can be safely put into the adoption program.

In the case of animals where the behaviour cannot be modified enough for public adoption, the new facility would become an animal sanctuary for these “unadoptable” animals where they can live for the rest of their lives.

The annual rush of fireworks-spooked dogs is all we can talk about in January, with a New Years Eve rush and even more predicted from Australia Day;

New year sends dogs crackers in Wyndham

Lost Dogs Home shelter manager Sue Conroy said 161 dogs were brought into the North Melbourne pound from Thursday, December 31 to Sunday, January 3, after escaping backyards across Melbourne to flee loud noises.

“We had 3 1/2 hours of non-stop rumbling from the storms, which spooked dogs,” Ms Conroy said.

Many Whitehorse pooches flee fireworks, thunder

Spokeswoman Brenda Champion said 121 animals were taken to the Cormack Rd shelter last weekend, including many which had become frightened and run away during New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations.

New lease of life for Stella

Dogs’ ears were battered with a double-whammy of thunderstorms and fireworks on New Year’s Eve that panicked dozens of our four-legged friends into running away from home.

The RSPCA’s metropolitan shelters picked up more than 110 stray dogs who went wandering to escape the noise.

Dogs go crackers in Whittlesea

Dozens of petrified dogs have fled their homes in terror during a spate of illegal fireworks and thunderstorms over New Year’s Eve.

Staff at the Epping RSPCA Shelter have been flat out since New Year’s Day trying to reunite owners with more than 45 animals that fled their yards amid the dramatic sound and light show.

She said 15 dogs remained unclaimed, including several maltese terriers, german shepherds, kelpies, jack russell terriers, pomeranians and a staffordshire terrier.

Which begs the question; if this happens every year, why aren’t we using the tools at our disposal to remedy it?

Remember, these dogs aren’t dumped – up until the first crack of fireworks they were living somewhere are someone’s pet. Now, they’re lost. So we need to make it incredibly easy for them to become un-lost.

Why don’t we have a national database of impounded dogs and cats, accessible online by the public, to which it is made mandatory for all pounds and shelters who impound, to upload a photo and basic description of every single pet?

Surely with the evolution of the interwebs (not too many shelters wouldn’t have access to a computer and digital camera now), this would be pretty straight forward, if all groups were dedicated to returning pets to their rightful owners as they claim to be.

Not the occasional, sometimes updated ‘found pet’ list buried somewhere in a council website (if the pet travelled two councils to the left and one up? How is anyone supposed to know?). Not the efforts of a shelter who’s taking pets from a number of councils, but leave it to the public to guess which ones.

But a mandatory, centralised database which sees every impounded pet have its photo taken and uploaded to a single website.

If pets aren’t impounded immediately (spending some time running or staying with a carer), then a saved database search can allow the owner of the pet to be notified when it finally does make their way to the pound.

With the new trend towards ’super pounds’ which take animals kms away from where they were collected, we must make the effort to also build into the system easy ways for people to find their lost animal. If groups are going to take money for a council contract, they must be made offer a minimum level of service to pet owners.

And in 2010, a picture on the web should be considered indispensable.