Mark Aldridge

PS before I log of, the Minister was miss lead in regards to facts and figures, that too will become public knowledge, sorry to have posted here

We are a licensed Sanctuary for native wildlife, Moorook was not state of the art, and never will be, but sections being built will be an the older sections are as good as most in the country, green shade cloth does not make the water green, as if I would not change water if it was green, or photo it for public vision, I see this is just the hate page members who make up what they wish to believe, but in looking over this site, I can also see some very passionate animal lovers. Myself and hundreds of people have opted to step in and help, some comments here indicate the shelter should be closed, each to their own, 2000 animals in recent years have been homed, and lets hope 2000 more will be given a chance, lets await the court out come and inspect the final outcome on ever front, but I fear even success wont be enough for some

I am not here to argue with any one, I tried over and over to mediate with the RSPCA, info up on my site will explain every move, I only ever thought my position would be to work with the council and the RSPCA to ensure compliance, which I thought would be an easy task, until now I had been a big supporter of the RSPCA, the 1000 or more emails since beg to differ, in the support of the animals comes with support and understanding of the owners or those taking care of the animals, there lays the issue I believe. I rescue native animals and those that can not be released I give a home for life, that is all I have to say, my website will continue to have articles updated, from here I will handle one more major media event, and back up 2 other enquires, one by Parliament the other by another news team, in which I will supply them information and witness names only. I tried to show where I come from and in what I believe, how that is perceived is up to you all. I have stood for what I believe for a long time now, and will continue to do the same, the chances of winning an election are very low, and after this federal election I will be steeping away from the political arena, and sticking to rights based issues, and that will include all sentient beings.

Just thought I would add my input to this post, I have always been an animal lover, but never expected to become a rescuer and such a staunch animal rights activists, let alone spokesperson for Moorook Animal shelter. I have read a few posts on here and thought a quick explanation may be pertinent, My wife and I many years ago started supporting Willow grove sanctuary, that of Peg Solomon, just a little help here and there fostering, and a few dollars when we had spare. I visited one and could see Peg, who was then in her 70’s needed a hand around the place, so myself and a few friends jumped in and cleaned up, a few years later it became evident she could no longer run the Sanctuary herself, and Parks and Wildlife would have to put down some of the animals due to issues both moving them any distance and of course re-homing them. So my wife and I put our hand up, we built a small sanctuary on our own property, and moved those animals in need to our home, our property coincidentally was called Willow wood, so we changed the name to Willow Wood Sanctuary. We so do some rescues still, but prefer to remain small and out of sight, simply because the costs are far greater than I have anticipated, but we love all the animals and my wife treats them better than some people do their own children. Over the years I have gained a good name in the political arena, albeit as a wannabee polly, but that has enabled me to lobby for a variety of causes with some media support, so when QLD was flooded out a couple of years ago, I help raise money for the rescue groups over there and several tonnes of feed and supplies. I did this with a promise from a trucking company to take the goods over and I was to spread the money raised by phone, but once we have everything together the truck company lets us down, as did a few others in relation to goods for the many homeless people that the floods created. I had publically promised to ensure the money and goods were delivered, so I took my hot rod (work in progress out the shed, managed to borrow a huge trailer and myself and a supporter simply headed off to do the job ourselves. This is where I had the privilege of meeting many great people in animal rescue all be them in QLD, and of course the many carers here that helped me along the way, so this probably concreted my resolve to continue having a special interest in animal care. In March this year, I was on a self funded trip in Canberra exposing issues within our electoral system, a very special interest of mine. My wife phoned to tell me what had happened at Moorook, I then phoned Lola who we had worked with over the years and where a couple of our furbabies had come from, and she said she needed my help, so I flew back immediately to lend her a hand. I contacted a few people from Canberra to see what the story was and also had a chat with Today Tonight to see if they could back Lola up, as from what I had been led to believe the RSPCA intervention did not appear to be based around the best interests of the animals involved, up until then I had not visited Moorook personally. The first visit was an eye opener, the RSPCA arrived and appeared to know little about the act that empowered them, yet I had only studied it on the plane back and when i arrived home, they were earmarking animals but without a vet present, and their understanding of medical issues appeared lack lustre to say the least, this I will explain. The only dog they showed interest in was a new arrival, it had come with a massive flea infestation, and had been taken to Lolas vets (midway road) and had been treated, the issue was so bad it had to have a section of fur shaved, and it was receiving topical treatment, in the first RSPCA raid a week earlier it had been earmarked to be taken, but I assume they had full vans, so Lola was asked to have it vet checked, even thought she made the officers aware this had already been done. Lola indeed did take the dog back to the vet, and the vet’s response was why it was back, well this is the very dog on the second inspection that was being questioned, and we all as animal lovers know fur does not grow back over night. In regards to the shelter itself, it indeed was a mess wound the edges, and the property was also used to recycle scrap metal in the non shelter areas, so indeed Lola needed a hand, that said the enclosures were clean, the dogs happy and healthy and the documents I was given in relation to veterinary checks, desexing, micro chipping and vaccinating showed it was better run that I would have ever expected. The shelter consisted of an old approved area of 9 concreted enclosures with an attached exercise yards no longer used and run down, A 4 run section for older dogs that was concreted and offered large areas to move again with a huge exercise area, a modern set of 19 concreted enclosures with attached exercise yards, 10 large back yard type settings that had Kennels but no concrete areas (used for animals in long term care) 8 larger enclosures with large kennels (now concreted) another modern run of 9 enclosures also up to modern standards, and a still used quarantine area with 8 enclosures, which met with the latest requirements, but could do with a makeover, on top of this are a few areas, Lola keeps her own dogs. On the first inspection Lola had 120 dogs on the property and had several experienced volunteers, I was impressed to be honest with the set up in general, but changes needed to be made in both management and in upkeep of the surrounding areas to the shelter. The 3 orders given by the RSPCA were minor in nature, so 1 weekend conquered them, some loose fencing and the concreting of 6 areas, and we met the RSPCA written orders, from there many good people stepped up and we renovated the entire surroundings, including years of junk that in the most was there when Lola brought the property. The hardest work was by way of orders from the local council, that went from my point of view beyond commonsense and in fact any local bi-laws, but we complied, this included uncovering drainage pits, that all complied, cleaning the area and even inspections of tool and garden sheds, even an unused shed at the rear of Lola’s home. Moorooks own records show they have homed in recent years over 2000 animals, which is massive and deserves respect, indeed things do get out of hand in terms of a property of this size when the owner puts the animals first, as for the charges made by the RSPCA, a detailed article is on my site www.markmaldridge.com , so I believe stepping in and helping was the right thing to do, other than my body telling me I am not fit enough for such manual labour  I used everything at my disposal to help ensure Lola could keep doing what she loved for as long as she is able, media, social networking, and my supporters, I may not have done everything in a way that everyone would agree is right, but I did do the best I could for the right reasons and will continue until the shelter is safe. All the way along I thought it pertinent to do so in a transparent manner, which is why I posted articles on what had transpired, as I was there for the shelter and I believe Moorook is a grass roots shelter, one that works only through the support and hard work of many. The shelter is now down to around 50 dogs, and homing rates remain steady at around 7 dogs a week, as a measure to make life easier, I suggested Moorook only take in Riverland dogs from now on, so I believe now the number will remain steady, a new toilet block is going in, a new quarantine area is under construction (air-conditioned) and the old quarantine area will be renovated and used to show case adoptions, so although the shelter can handle up to 140 dogs, development planning will be for a maximum of 60 from here on in. The cattery is also being overhauled and is looking good, every cat is de-sexed, immunised and treated by a local vet, and just for your information, Lola covers over $4,000 a month in vet bills. As for the legal’s, I have found a very good legal team to cover the court case pro bono, and we are also having Moorook registered as a charity, until now it was a registered business and has since 1999 been an approved shelter operation. I note there are a few people on here that back what has happened, and others that differ in opinion, so I post this to show my side of the story, thank you for listening. Mark