More for animal welfare
- Rodney Stevens
- 20th Oct 2012 6:00 AM
A FORMER federal senator is calling on the NSW Government to cough up more cash for animal welfare.
Norm Sanders, 80, who sat on the Senate Animal Welfare committee for five years in the 1980s, said animal welfare is one of the most under-funded issues in NSW.
“I am very concerned about animal welfare issues like those horses that were found starving near Nimbin last week,” he said.
“What it seems is there is no governmental agency around here which is interested in animal welfare.”
Mr Sanders said there was only one RSPCA officer stationed to cover an area between Coffs Harbour and the Queensland border.
He said it was about time the NSW government got serious about animal welfare and poured more funding into the serious issue.
“The police have the legal power to take action but they have so many other things to do,” he said.
“The Animal Rights and Rescue Group here in Lismore are trying to do a job but they don’t have any funds.
“The state government is just dumping this whole issue on volunteers.”
Mr Sanders said there were two solutions to the problem.
“More funding for the RSPCA and more funding for volunteer groups, some funding to do some good work so they can buy whatever they need for the animals so that they can do the job that they’re trying to do. The other thing I would like to see is more people making people aware of animal welfare issues.”
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The Animal Rights and Rescue group Northern Rivers thanks the former senator Norm Sanders for speaking out for the animals and the rescue groups overwhelmed in this area. ARRG is the only animal centre open daily for the public from Coffs Harbour and Tweed Heads with a population over 200,000, we currently have over 70 cats and dogs in care and more waiting at both Lismore and Casino pound for ARRG to take! Donations are down 50% in the last year while animal intake is up, without an increase in donations or some government or local council funding we are worried about keeping our door open, then what would happen to the animals?
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Free desexing clinics throughout all NSW and forcing people to desex their animals. Only having registered approved breeders, and then with these two in place given 5 years the issue of destroying so many healthy animals would cease to exist and animals would have homes for life and be cared for appropriately. Desexing would also help stop the ‘feral dog’ problem and stop farm and dumped dogs breeding out our dingoes! DESEX YOUR PET NOW!!
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Many of the animal welfare issues are the cause of Department of primary industries who do not update their animal welfare laws. The laws are not in place to protect animals they are mostly in place to give humans rights to exploit animals. Any sick person can own a horse, dog cat, even if they are very well known by the police and the RSPCA, and it is these people who are the ones that continue to breed and dump and abuse animals. Animal abuse is a huge problem in the northern rivers, and it is impossible to monitor with one inspector. The whole animal welfare law needs to have it’s own portfolio and be taken out of the hands of DPI who only know about business and farming. DPI and RSPCA together can make changes to many of the laws on animal welfare but they don’t change a thing. How many dogs in North NSW are chained 24/7 – sometimes their whole lives in horrendous conditions. How many horses have to endure long hot summers with no shelter or a constant supply of water, or as we saw with the Rosebank case, horses tied up 24/7 months, years on end, often left without water. And this all can happen because it is LEGAL!!! RSPCA if you want to monopolise all animal welfare groups, then bring us 7 more inspectors and lobby for the laws to change. Tasmania, the size of NSW has 8 inspectors!
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I think that Animal Welfare needs to be separate from the DPI which I agree is more concerned about farming/business and less about animal welfare. Also if there is going to be funding why not give it to organizations like ARRG/Grafton Animal rescue and other groups who are actually doing the work and would use the money wisely unlike the RSPCA who seem to fritter it away on costly advertisement campaigns rather than helping the animals not to mention their ridiculous temperament test which to me seems like an excuse to kill , High volume/Low cost De-sexing is another item that needs funding as well as tightening the animal welfare laws to stop puppy farming and backyard breeders.
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What about East Coast Horse Rescue & all the wonderful work that they do? Why were they not mentioned in the article?
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RSPCAs are far too compromised with the relationships with farming industries and their passion for fundriaising above all else (including th animals) to ever be fit to administer and enforce animal protction legislation. The portfolios should be removed from all state and territory DPIs and given to Departments of Justice, and the Inspectorate roles should only be carried out by appropriately resourced units of the Police. Remove the RSPCA from the equation entirely, because it proves, every day, that animals are pretty low on its priority list.
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