Hawkesbury pound allows a dog to overheat and die, ignoring the pleading from volunteers to give him support care.
We are heartbroken to tell you beautiful Bear died alone, in excruciating suffering and agony of heat stress, last week, on Thursday 29/12/2016 at Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter.
~ Saving Fantasia website
Wagga pound freezes live cats to death, with the abuses only coming to light after volunteers raised the alarm.
Pounds across the nation fail to open their doors to adopters over the christmas period, relying on volunteers to rescue pets and place them in homes.
Care, compassion and the desire to see the lives of animals saved is often non-existent in our pound system. The pound system is broken. So broken that even when money is earmarked to ensure conditions improve, those at the helm are working against meaningful reform.
Griffith pound in NSW has been for decades a parvo-contaminated, hell hole. No longer compliant with legislation, pets are dropped into chutes and held in group housing, over-heating in a classic ‘hot box’ set-up. Dogs have been literally dropping dead in their 'care'.
Volunteer rescue groups and the community have demanded that pets start being treated compassionately, and stop being tortured on the tax-payer dime. And in response council has let their feelings about animal care be known…
"The pound is not something we want to be invest in, council has invested over $500,000 of the community’s money... we would rather invest that money into something more productive and that services the community but at the end of the day we must provide this facility," (Chairperson of Council’s General Facilities Committee Councillor Doug Curran) said.
"The old pound was rundown and needed to be updated... but we would rather see the need for a pound vastly reduced or removed,” he said.
... "We have to do our best to find homes and ensure these animals don't suffer and part of that is to provide a facility that is fit for purpose and the old pound had well and truly past its use-by-date.”
“Staff are putting in the effort to ensure as many of these animals are re-homed, we will always cop criticism because animals have to be euthanized but at the end of the day if animals didn't show up in our care we wouldn't have to do it.”
Area News
(bolding mine)
It’s worth noting that the Griffith pound does not open to the pet-adopting public. It can’t. It is a dangerous shit-hole.
So the quote "effort" put in by council to adopt pets is to a) kill them,
or b) threaten to kill them and a volunteer rescue group takes them, for free, and arranges every other thing about their "rehoming".
No, really - well done YOU! *thumbs up*
(Note: These are the people who will be responsible for your pet should it ever become lost and if you live in the Griffith area. Of if your pet travels some distance if separated from you. Or if you're visiting. Or if you're just passing through. So I recommend just never being close to this town, or these guys with your pet. Ever.)
Local rescue groups are finding the wait for this non-wanted, new non-hideous pound heart-breaking, because conditions are still unbearable.
This new pound at Griffith is not "unwanted" - it is desperately needed.
What is "unwanted" is council pounds who resent having to do the jobs we're paying them to do.
What is "unwanted" is councils who feel it is appropriate to abuse our pets. And then blame us for their failings.
Pull your finger out of your ass Cr Curran. Open your new pound and stop abusing our pets.