No Kill News – can we do this here in Australia? Affordable, low cost desexing program funded by New York City

We received this exciting release of news from Companion Animal Network TV in New York

“Dear Friends of Animals,
This Saturday July 25 at NY City Animal Care and Control (“NYCACC”) in Manhattan,  New York City’s animals and their guardians are finally getting what has long been needed, a super low cost mobile veterinary hospital with full surgical capabilities for limited income pet parents, rescue groups, and rescue adoptions. Whereas the ASPCA has taken the lead in operating five low cost and free Spay Neuter vans for limited income pet parents, the new Vet Mobile will only be providing full veterinary services to those qualified pet parents, not spay neuters. The launch of the Vet Mobile is being celebrated in conjunction with the Mayor’s Alliance for NY City Animals, North Shore Animal League, and NYCACC. North Shore Animal League will be featuring the NYCACC foster animals in their 40 ft. Mobile Adoption Van. The Mayor’s Alliance for NYC Animals will be providing $10 microchips, including registration.

Next Wednesday, July 29th, the Vet Mobile will premiere at the Brooklyn NYCACC. Thereafter the Vet Mobile will be in front of the NYCACC in Manhattan every Saturday 12-6, and Brooklyn every Wednesday 12-6. As soon as the Vet Mobile is financially breaking even, it will expand to being assigned one day per week at the Staten Island and Bronx NYCACC also.

An exam is just $25, and vaccinations only $10. Free ID tags are provided for all patients, both dogs and cats. All services will be at the super low cost prices already established by the Safety Net Program, which has been preventing surrenders to NYCACC for the past four years. The Vet Mobile is an extension of the Safety Net Program, so that qualified pet parents have access to full veterinary  services at extremely low rates. Proof of limited income or rescue adoption or rescue rehoming is necessary for qualification. For more information see News Release below.

“NEW LOW COST VET MOBILE TO HELP STRUGGLING NYC PET OWNERS KEEP THEIR PETS IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

 NEW YORK, NY (July 20, 2009) – On Saturday, July 25, New Yorkers will get their first glimpse of the “Low Cost Vet Mobile” – a new mobile veterinary clinic created to help cash-strapped New Yorkers at risk of having to give up their companion animals because they can no longer afford their veterinary care. The program, developed by Garo Alexanian of Companion Animal Network and staffed by local veterinarians, will provide pet owners with affordable, preventive veterinary care and also a first step in developing relationships with veterinarians within their community.
 
To celebrate the launch, AC&C will host a special pet adoption promotion from noon until 7:00 pm, where dozens of wonderful dogs and cats will be available for adoption both inside the shelter and on a North Shore Animal League America adoption van parked curbside. Adoption fees for adult cats (over one year old) will be waived. In addition, vaccinations for dogs and cats will be available for $10 on the Vet Mobile, and the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals will offer extra-low-cost ($10 microchipping for cats and dogs between noon and 6:00 pm.
 
Traditionally, many low-income pet owners do not seek preventive veterinary care for their pets, and when their pets become ill, they surrender them to AC&C. In today’s particularly challenging economy, the number of these animals arriving at AC&C shelters has skyrocketed. “The mobile clinic will help so many pet owners that are having trouble making ends meet and caring for a sick pet at the same time,” says Richard Gentles, AC&C’s spokesperson. “We applaud Garo’s initiative, and the timing couldn’t be better.”
 
By providing another means of access to affordable veterinary care to low-income New York City pet owners, the Low Cost Vet Mobile is expected to substantially reduce the number of animals surrendered to city shelters, which already are at full capacity. “I expect the program will prevent approximately 5,000 surrenders over the course of a year,” says Alexanian. “This can translate to a 12-15 percent reduction in shelter intakes.”
 
Stemming the tide of preventable pet surrenders is crucial to the success of current efforts underway in New York City to reduce, and eventually end, the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs at city shelters simple because they do not have homes, according to Jane Hoffman, President of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals – the organization that spearheads the city’s efforts to become a no-kill community under a multi-million-dollar grant from Maddie’s Fund®, the Pet Rescue Foundation. “The Low Cost Vet Mobile provides another important alternative for our city’s pet owners who don’t want to part with their companion animals.” Among other programs currently available to these pet owners are the Safety Net/Pets for Life NYC program, low-cost vet care at the Humane Society of New York Veterinary Hospital in Manhattan, and the Bensonhurst Low Cost Animal Clinic in Brooklyn.
 
Dr. Elizabette Cohen, DVM, host of the radio program “Happy and Healthy Pet,” and author of the book Most of My Patients Wear Fur, will be the veterinarian on duty for the Low Cost Vet Mobile’s Manhattan launch on July 25, and also for the van’s premiere at AC&C’s Brooklyn shelter on Wednesday, July 29. At both launch events, Dr. Cohen will consult with patients, provide tours of the van, and also sign copies of her book, for which she will donate 100% of the proceeds from the days’ book sales to AC&C.
 
Going forward, the Low Cost Vet Mobile’s location will alternate between Animal Care & Control’s Manhattan and Brooklyn locations, where it will provide assistance to pet owners at two of the busiest points of entry to the New York City shelter system.”
 
 About Companion Animal Network
Companion Animal Network (C.A.N.) was the force behind the creation of the NYC Animal Care and Control. Four years ago C.A.N founded the nation’s first surrender prevention program, and now it is launching the Low Cost Vet Mobile. C.A.N. has been acknowledged by the New York City Council in Resolution #985 for its efforts to bring improvements to the animal control services of New York City.
 
About Animal Care & Control of NYC
Animal Care & Control of New York City rescues over 43,000 animals each year, making the organization the largest pet rescue and adoption agency in the North East. Since 1995, the not-for-profit organization has been responsible for New York City’s municipal shelter system, caring for rescued animals and finding loving homes for homeless, injured, neglected, abused and abandoned animals in all five of the boroughs in New York City.
 
About the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals
The Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, Inc., founded in 2002 and powered by Maddie’s Fund^®, The Pet Rescue Foundation, is a coalition of more than 160 animal rescue groups and shelters that are working with the City of New York to find homes for every cat and dog in the city that needs one. For more information about the Mayor’s Alliance, its participating organizations, and pet adoptions, please visit the Mayor’s Alliance web site at www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org .

DRP Comment:

We badly need to get low-cost desexing programs running in every Council area across the country. Subsidised desexing has been shown to create dramatic results – and in the end saves council and tax payer money. Isn’t this a smarter alternative to collecting, housing and then killing thousands of healthy animals?

Let us know about any such initiatives you are seeing in Australia!

The curse of Christmas…….

“I’m a volunteer and committee member for an organisation call K9 Dog Rescue near Mandurah Western Australia. We’re fully volunteer operated and donation funded. We are currently licensed to hold 40 dogs, but we hover around the 28-30 on average.  Last year we found homes for over 700 pound dogs, and we collect from the local pounds on Mondays and Wednesdays, usually taking in 10-12 dogs a week (excluding puppies).

After Christmas, this year our office was swamped with calls from people wanting to surrender Christmas dogs. We’re talking 2 weeks afterwards. Some of the other people came and just dumped dogs on our doorstep.

One story I can tell you: There was a young idiot there one day waiting with a puppy, it was the last of a litter of 11 (obviously the runt), that he hadn’t been able to sell over Christmas obviously. He wanted us to take it. The office staff asked him if he was going to get his dog steralised now…………. “NO! I want another litter” was his reply.  

Honestly, this is what we are dealing with.”

DRP Comment: this true story just highlights the attitude of irresponsible back yard breeders

If you faced this individual, what would you say to him?

RSPCA Queensland tries new approach to increase rehoming for cats and dogs

Courier News: “THE Queensland branch of the RSPCA has broken ranks with the organisation interstate by selling refuge animals in commercial pet shops.

Cats and dogs from RSPCA shelters go on sale today at Petbarn in Lawnton, just north of Brisbane, and the RSPCA’s World for Pets Superstore at Springwood in Logan City, south of Brisbane.

If the trial is successful, other Petbarns and pet shops across the state will be offered RSPCA animals…..”

Read more………

DRP comment: the article speaks about the RSPCA ’selling’ animals, but we consider this an innacurate label to a trial designed to rehome more rescued animals AND replace traditional pet shop sourced puppies and kittens. RSPCA Queensland CEO Mark Townend told us:

“I picked 4 pet shops that I were believed were “good” examples of pet shops and then sent our Scientific Officer out to inspect the premises with an extensive checklist. The pet shop owners were aware of why we were doing the Inspection and were very open to us.  At this point we started with just one of those pet shops.

I really believe it can make a differences by getting undesexed animals from unknown sources out of petshops and replace them with desexed RSPCA animals that need a home.

This has been done completely independently of PIAA.”

We say: “Well done RSPCA Queensland”

Tell us what you think! We’re interested in your views!

Behavioural assessment in Australian animal shelters

“Thousands of dogs are relinquished to Australian animal shelters each year. Prior to being made available for adoption, dogs undergo a behavioural assessment to determine their suitability as companions. Dogs that pass the assessment are made available for adoption, whereas those that fail are usually euthanased. This is potentially problematic for several reasons; not only do current protocols used to assess adoption suitability lack standardisation in their content and methodology, very few have been presented in the peer reviewed literature.“

This is an extract from a paper presented at last year’s National Desexing Network summit to end pet overpopulation.

How would your own dog react in an unfamiliar and extremely stressful situation to a multitude of strange objects, noise and activities, other dogs and people? Would your dog grab and shake a dolly or stuffed toy? If so your dog would most likely be on the long list to be destroyed.

This paper reports that two thirds (77%) of assessment staff who responded to the survey reported that they had received training in the assessment of shelter dogs whereas one third (33%) reported that they had not received training. BUT the most common form of training was ‘on the job’ training (59%) followed by ‘attended a seminar/completed a course’ (33%).

So in a nutshell, there is no standard and properly researched and reported method for a behavioural assessment and the majority of those that carry out the assessment have not had any proper formal training.

Yet the life of each animal they assess rests in their hands….This is just not good enough.

1 Undesexed Female Cat + 7 years = 420,000 Kittens…

One female cat and her off-spring can breed over a period of 7 years adding 420,000 new cats!! Did you know that cats can fall pregnant at four months of age and dogs at 5 months of age? Many cats and dogs are born “by mistake” because owners don’t get around to desexing them in time. The excuse by the Pet Shop or breeder is often that the animal is too young when it is sold. BUT ‘Early Age’ desexing at 2-4 months is perfectly safe and feasible! (And no puppy or kitten should be sold before 8 weeks at the very earliest.)
We believe that de-sexing of pets can and should be done at the point of sale. We would like this to become mandatory. We believe that the person who has bred the kitten or puppy should be responsible for desexing the pet, even if they simply add the fee to the price they are asking. At least the job is done and there are many, many health benefits for your pet!

Animal Welfare League, Queensland says….
Myth: You have to wait until 6 months to de-sex your pet
Fact: There are greater benefits from de-sexing between 2 – 4 months. Although traditionally 6 months was the age that most vets recommended, there has been significant research in the last twenty years to show that de-sexing between 2-4 months is actually just as safe and your kitten or pup will recover much more quickly than an older animal. There will also be no risk of an unwanted litter to add to the huge numbers of animals that currently have to be euthanized every year in Australia because there are not enough homes.

Early Age De-sexing (2-4 months) – The Benefits

1. Animals live longer
2. There is a sharp decrease in likelihood of cancers
3. Younger animals recover much faster, with less bleeding during surgery and shorter surgery time
4. There is increasing evidence that it has positive influence on socialisation and behaviour
5. It helps reduce companion animal over-population and the euthanasia of healthy pets as cats can be pregnant by 5 months and dogs by 6 months
   http://www.awlqld.com.au/desexing.htm