Hundreds of animals put down

Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au

MORE than 600 cats and nearly 100 dogs were euthanased by Kingston Council’s contracted animal shelter in the first six months of 2023.

New statewide statistics on the fate of animals who enter shelters and pounds have been released by Animal Welfare Victoria. The statistics cover the period between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023.

During that time The Lost Dogs Home Casey, which provides animal shelter services for both Kingston and

Frankston councils, admitted 2201 cats and put down 652. It admitted 1227 dogs during the six month period and euthanased 91.

The Lost Dogs Home provides animal shelter services to sixteen Victorian councils. In addition to its Casey facility in Cranbourne West, it also has a facility in North Melbourne.

The Lost Dogs Home director of external affairs Jill Gustave-Marsten said that more work needs to be done to prevent cats from being euthanased.

“The Lost Dogs’ Home is committed to providing the health and behavioural care necessary to be able to rehome every adoptable animal regardless of length of time it may take to do so. We are also committed to making the right euthanisia decisions to prevent unnecessary suffering, as well as to protect members of the community and their animals. We achieve this with dogs. We are not achieving this with cats,” GustaveMarsten said. “The sheer numbers of unowned and wild cats coming into shelters, pounds and rescues every year, and most especially during the consistently lengthening kitten season, makes this impossible. Although we are slowly reducing euthanasia rates for cats year on year, we must have the support of the community and a far greater commitment from the state government to be able to achieve this at a much faster rate.”

The Lost Dogs’ Home was tasked with caring for more than 18,000 animals in 2022/2023.

Kingston Council’s domestic animal management plan 2021-2025 recorded animal euthanaisa statistics between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. It recorded seven euthanased dogs, and 151 euthanased cats. 125 wild cats were put down, and 26 were put down for showing aggression.

A statement from Kingston Council read that it is “satisfied with the service provided by the current animal pound

service provider. We review the agreement and operational matters with the service provider quarterly.”

“As always, we are consistently looking for ways to improve the outcomes for animals in our city. Notably we have a policy to return all registered animals to their owners rather than take them to the pound. A registered animal will only be taken to the pound facility if the owner and their contacts can’t be reached.”

Statewide between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023, 25,913 cats and 14,178 dogs were admitted into care and 6,535 cats and 1,193 dogs were killed.