Death From Desexing - Getting Around Mandatory Laws

[kiwikitten]

It is the law in Victoria that all shelter/rescue animals be desexed prior to adoption.

Actually, having spoken to the DPI in Victoria, the law does not apply to rescue groups - only registered shelters and pounds. So not sure why the rescue group would feel that "the law made them do it" - maybe because they extrapolated the shelter law, and thought it automatically applied to them. But if you are a CFCN it does not.

So the foster care arrangement with a prospective owner until an appropriate desexing age/size/weight would have been a perfectly valid option in this situation.

So now I am even more upset at such an unnecessary death!

Edited January 23, 2012 by kiwikitten

[k9angel]

It is the law in Victoria that all shelter/rescue animals be desexed prior to adoption.

Actually, having spoken to the DPI in Victoria, the law does not apply to rescue groups - only registered shelters and pounds. So not sure why the rescue group would feel that "the law made them do it" - maybe because they extrapolated the shelter law, and thought it automatically applied to them. But if you are a CFCN it does not.

So the foster care arrangement with a prospective owner until an appropriate desexing age/size/weight would have been a perfectly valid option in this situation.

So now I am even more upset at such an unnecessary death!

[vicdrg]

I have no idea why it would be illegal anywhere. We run a foster care operation. The dog is in foster care.

It is rehomed when desexed.

We are the owners of the dog. we pay for all vetwork. We are responsible for returning completed paperwork to the pound. I cannot image why or where it would be illegal. To rehome the dog without desexing the dog would certainly be illegal in Victoria.

Perhaps you have misunderstood something.

But again I repeat we routinely do early desexing. We are talking about special cases only here.

[tdierikx]

Aren't there enough homeless dogs in Victoria for the rescues there to take in? Why are they taking dogs/pups from Sydney pounds?

T.

[kiwikitten]

"To rehome the dog without desexing the dog would certainly be illegal in Victoria" - Apparently not, its only if a shelter or pound does it. DPI said a CFCN is the owner of the dog in instances where they obtained the dog from somewhere other than a Vic shelter/pound, therefore they can do what they like with the dog, including rehoming without desexing, just like any private owner of any dog can sell or give it away undesexed. So they could have rehomed the puppies with a desexing contract, or they could have taken the temporary foster care approach - either way, there were options. Guess it takes something like this to figure out all the ins and outs, and develop a plan for future situations.

[vicdrg]

"To rehome the dog without desexing the dog would certainly be illegal in Victoria" - Apparently not, its only if a shelter or pound does it. DPI said a CFCN is the owner of the dog in instances where they obtained the dog from somewhere other than a Vic shelter/pound, therefore they can do what they like with the dog, including rehoming without desexing, just like any private owner of any dog can sell or give it away undesexed. So they could have rehomed the puppies with a desexing contract, or they could have taken the temporary foster care approach - either way, there were options. Guess it takes something like this to figure out all the ins and outs, and develop a plan for future situations.

Sorry I was not clear. To rehome a pound dog without desexing is illegal in Vitoria. With a surrender there is a moral and ethical obligation to vetwork the animal before rehoming or you are not a cfc network. This is the problem wiht rescue in Victoria - there is no Code or regulations for groups to follow except of course for DRAV who have their own Code. And of course when criticisms are made of cfc networks and rescue groups the examples that will be used are of those 'groups' that are not vetworking before rehoming.

[Aphra]

Aren't there enough homeless dogs in Victoria for the rescues there to take in? Why are they taking dogs/pups from Sydney pounds?

T.

We routinely take dogs from NSW pounds. I don't think desperate dogs and cats care much about state boundaries. In our case it's because we've found working with Victorian pounds quite difficult, we're a very small group and in the area we are in the pound system is dominated by the RSPCA and the Lost Dogs Home. We have developed a relationship with a handful of rural NSW pounds and have been working happily with them for a couple of years now. Does it really matter where the dogs come from if they are properly looked after and responsibly re-homed?

If we have very small puppies or animals which have some issues which make early age de-sexing an issue we just keep them in care until they are old/healthy enough to desex. Just because people like to take puppies and kittens at as young an age as possible, doesn't mean a rescue group has to cater to that. We prefer to re-home our puppies after the 12 week mark anyway, and we've found even older puppies easy enough to re-home.

While it would not be illegal for us to re-home any of our animals un-desexed (because they do not come from Victorian pounds under an 84Y agreement), we would never do it. In a case like the one presented we'd probably just keep the puppy in care until it was old enough to desex. Since the puppy came from NSW and was in foster care anyway, there choices could have been to re-home on a desexing agreement if there was reasonable confidence it could be enforced, re-home on a foster care agreement until it was old enough to desex, or just keep the puppy in foster care until it was able to be de-sexed.

I know the RSPCA routinely de-sex six week old kittens in full knowledge that they will lose a big percentage of them, but there is no reason for a rescue group to operate like that.

[vicdrg]

Is that the RSPCA Burwood Aphra? Is there anywhere I can see that written. I had always thought 8 weeks was the minimum age. I have heard of desexing at 600 gms but didn't know any shelters that did it.

It's a catch 22 isn't it. We think 3 months is the ideal age for desexing but certainly before section 84ys were routinely risking lives by desexing early as otherwise they would be killed anyway.

[Kirty]

I actually didn't think the RSPCA lost many kittens during desexing. I would also like to see stats if you have any. As long as vets are careful and keep babies warm, there should be no greater risk with most breeds of kittens/puppies.

[cryptic]

This thread is proving very interesting reading. I have 5 rescue Chihuahua cross puppies atm . Their mother was heavily pregnant when she arrived here. She delivered 5 healthy puppies 10 weeks ago. 3 female & 2 male. The heaviest pup is 1.2 kg & the lightest is 750 grams. I have just weaned them from their mum & i would not dream of having them desexed any time soon. They will be desexed before they go to their forever homes. The 2 males will be desexed first . They are larger than the females & my vet has stated that in his opinion the males can be desexed earlier than the females as the surgery is not as involved. I am already nervous about them having general anaesthetic as i know the Chi can be prone to complications.. My adult rescue male Chi did not handle the anaesthetic very well at all when he had patella correction surgery 3 months ago. Thankfully he was ok. That is very sad about the small puppy who died & i am sure very upsetting for all involved with his rescue.

Edited January 26, 2012 by cryptic