Killing Homeless Animals

Every year in NSW more than 60 000 cats and dogs are destroyed in council pounds.

All of these animals at one stage had homes or are the unwanted litters of animals who had homes; they all suffer a similar fate – fear, discomfort, loneliness and pain, before their lives are tragically taken from them.
 
There are many common myths about council pounds and what happens to animals when they are picked up by a council ranger or surrendered to a pound. Pounds are not run as ‘shelters’ or ‘rehoming centres’ (although, if pressured to by residents they easily could be). They are merely ‘holding facilities’ designed to manage companion animals not under the immediate care of their owners. And if an animal is unreclaimed after 7 or 14 days (depending on whether they are microchipped) or if an animal is surrendered, they are almost always euthanased.
 
During the 7 to 14 day holding period, animals are kept in pens or runs usually exposed to the cold or the heat. Dog kennels are hosed down daily with the dogs still in them – summer and winter alike. The sizes of the cages vary according to the funds allocated to each holding facility. Some have not been upgraded for decades, most contain no bedding, and quarantine areas seldom exist. If they do, they are grossly inadequate in preventing the spread of disease and are often used as additional holding space because of the growing numbers of animals impounded.
 
Stories of abuse and neglect are rife within council pounds. And is there little wonder that this is the case in a system which treats animals the same way it manages residential waste? However, the exposure of some of these occurrences has led to an improvement at those facilities. For example the pound used by Wyong Council has dramatically reduced its euthanasia rate after local media exposed the cruel treatment of animals under the Council’s care.

Killing homeless animals should never have been seen as a solution, nor is it necessary to do so now. Council pounds continue to kill animals because it is the easiest and cheapest thing for them to do.

There are so many alternatives immediately available to what we are currently doing, but we tend to resist change and governments (whether at the local or state level) avoid passing and enforcing unpopular legislation. CatRescue is campaigning for many of these changes, such as:

• Mandatory desexing
• Introducing widespread subsidised desexing programs (or regulating the exorbitant fees charged by vets)
• Banning the sale of pets in pet shops
• Banning backyard breeding and puppy farms
• Making it a fineable offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to not reclaim an animal from a pound
 

These changes to legislation will address the continual flood of unwanted animals entering pounds. Traditionally they are unpopular (and highly criticised) because businesses are frightened that they will lose money and customers – primarily the Australian Veterinary Association and the Pet Industry Association of Australia. But should we – and the Government – really be asking them for their advice? It is blatantly obvious that their first priority is making money, and not the well being of the animals. An overwhelming amount of evidence and experience demonstrates that these legislative changes (and others) do work. It has been proven that things do not have to be this way, and are occurring simply because of greed and laziness.

And what about the animals who are currently in pounds? How do we help them? Legislation change is an important step, but it takes many years to feel the effects. But there are many solutions for the animals entering pounds right now, including:
 
• Get rid of ‘mega-pounds’ that operate for more than one (or two if the local government areas are small) councils. Some pounds operate for 8 or more, which poses significant problems – from the distance that residents have to travel to reclaim their pets (often over an hour), to the sheer volume of animals entering that one facility. The subsequent overcrowding leads to an increase in disease, a massive strain on resources, and the impossibility of the community adopting all these animals. Pounds should be kept small and local.
• Council pounds should apply for charitable fundraising status, enabling them to fundraise in the community so they can enhance the quality of care for the animals
• Have foster caring programs (where trained volunteers can nurse sick or infant animals until they are ready to be rehomed)
• Advertise animals looking for homes on-line and in local papers
• Increase opening hours (some pounds are not open weekends)
• Reduce the cost of adopting an animal (some pounds charge in excess of $200 per cat). The adoption fee could be reduced if pounds were able to fundraise or accept donations to cover their costs.
• Offer free or heavily subsidised desexing programs (this will lead to a reduction in animals which will mean saving resources in the long term – not to mention the lives it will save).
• Improve the overall condition / appearance of the pound so people are not daunted by going there to adopt an animal. Pounds often have a bad reputation, are often very run down, and some can be distressing to visit – especially when you know that most of the animals there will be killed. This absolutely acts as a deterrent.
• Set up proper quarantine areas (and train staff aseptic techniques) so animals do not become sick and cannot be rehomed.
• Vet check and vaccinate all incoming animals
• Organise a roster of volunteers to walk the dogs and socialise the cats
• Liaise with TAFE’s offering animal grooming courses, and offer placements for students to help groom the dogs and cats awaiting adoption (appearances are important, especially if they have had weeks on the street). This will also assist the students with their training.
• Liaise with dog trainers to help teach the dogs basic obedience
• Train staff to have a basic knowledge of how to recognise and treat sick animals.
• Remove tender systems, and other convoluted and confusing methods of payment.
• Hold awareness days in the community – how many people could even find their local pound?
• Keep proper records of the animals entering pounds, their reasons and where they were found, to help identify problems in the community.
• Hold information stalls at community events to raise the profile of the pound.
• Develop programs such as ‘Seniors for Seniors’ to help promote older animals in the community, and in places such as nursing homes.
• Set up ‘desex and return’ programs for neighbourhood cats (this is a contentious issue, but one that needs to be debated and addressed).
• Liaise with pounds around the state and keep an online database of the animals currently being held in these facilities. If one pound has too many large dogs, contact a pound who has space and a greater success with rehoming large dogs. In exchange, take some of their smaller dogs etc. This ‘exchange program’ has had great success in other countries.
• Set up ‘adoption centres’ with vets in the local council area, where kittens could be rehomed when there are not many clients boarding animals.
 

There are many more solutions, however they will not be easy at first, and will initially require investing more resources into setting up the necessary infrastructure and implementing the programs. But the resources do exist, and it will result in saving money in the long term. These changes will also have other benefits, such as increased community awareness and responsibility, job satisfaction (as opposed to compassion fatigue and burn out) for pound staff, reduced instances of nuisance animals which can cause neighbourhood disputes, plus protection for wildlife as stray animals are reduced.

We need to start by forming working groups comprised of independent experts and welfare workers so we can agree on a procedure for implementing these programs and others like them. Members of the Australian Veterinary Association and the Pet Industry Association of Australia should be prohibited from participating as they pose a serious conflict of interest.

We need to start by not killing animals. To stop seeing killing as an option, (‘necessity is the mother of invention’), and once we are forced to identify and implement real and humane solutions, we will.

Click Here To read a first hand account of a shelter manager.