Moral Question, Re Shelters.

[vicdrg]

Last year Geelong killed 20% of dogs, the Lost Dogs Home Averages about 30%. MOST of the animals euthanised at the Lost Dogs Home are ferral cats.

I am not defending them. I do believe they could be doing more than they are doing. They are at least beginning to try to do behavioural rehabilitation with some of the dogs that come in, something they were not doing 10 years ago.

GAWS is not considered no kill by most people. They are doing very little to no rehabilitation of dogs and have basically no foster carers. MOST of the dogs there are being warehoused, and in conditions worse than those I have seen at the lost dogs home.

That video clip was of a news report that was aired 3 months after GAWS changed policy. At first it got support, but over time it died off and the kill rate increased, foster carers dropped off as they were given no support, volunteers could pissed off with what was happening, etc. I know of 2 volunteers who quit after they were forced to watch a very elderly and frail whippit kept alive, in the middle of winter in pens that had no real shelter at all. At the lost dogs home the dog would have been much more enclosed, than at GAWS. No vet I know would ever have kept such a dog alive. In the end one of them adopted it to have it PTS. GAWS have also placed dogs with people without charging any fees at all and without asking any questions at all. Some of the dogs have since been reclaimed by the RSPCA, as they were being so badly abused. And the most basic of questions or even being asked to pay $100 for the dog, would have prevented them from obtaining it.

GAWS is not doing assessments of the dogs and will give them to anyone at all, often for nothing at all. Some of the most difficult dogs do need very experienced owners and simply handing them out to anyone does not solve the problem. Some of them have ended up been euthanised by the council after they bit someone, as they were in the hands of people who could not handle them.

The simple fact is ALL shelters could be doing better. The RSOPCA in ACT I think is setting some of the best standards in Australia, not just in terms of keeping the dogs alive, but also in how they interact with them while they are in the shelter. They do have music playing all the time, they did nurmous studies to find out which was more soothing. They rotate many of the dogs through foster homes to try and give them all breaks from the shelter, rather than just saying some are lucky and get into foster care. Those that really do need foster care are kept there if at all possible. They classify the dogs in terms of the sort of owner that will be needed for them and so they are not simply rehomed with anyone, but they are kept until a suitable person is found. That does mean that the more difficult wait for much longer, but they do keep them alive.

[kayla1]

Last year Geelong killed 20% of dogs, the Lost Dogs Home Averages about 30%. MOST of the animals euthanised at the Lost Dogs Home are ferral cats.

I'd be interested in seeing the evidence to support your assertion, given that the LDH AR provides no statistical info on whether admitted cats are feral or not.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I think the stats provided by the RSPCA on that Insight program on SBS a few weeks back was something like 67% cats they get in get euthanased. Feral or not wasn't mentioned. The number was three times higher than the number of dogs.